AT GREEN APPLE, WE FEEL so strongly about putting out a positive message of what we can all be doing to improve our relationship with nature, that not only have we blogged about it in articles… and not only have we documented in with photography… but we have even produced a full-length feature movie about it! It has been called the definitive documentary about natural building, and it was shot in eight countries on four continents, over a period of over four years. Publishing house PM Press has signed on as distributor and will be officially releasing the DVD in a couple of months. The name of the film is FIRST EARTH – Uncompromising Ecological Architecture.
DURING THE MOST RECENT rain spell, work had to be called off for the remainder of the day, so John came in to the office and put some finishing touches onto the Green Apple Living Wall. John is a stone mason by trade, so he’s got the skills to pay the bills with the stone and cement mortar. He finished off the base of the basin with some brickwork, and now the living project is really complete. Great work, John. Way to go, team! It’s beautiful!
THIS WEEK THE GREEN APPLE team helped to build a Living Wall at the infamous Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto. The installation was part of a two-day training session with Green Living Technologies, a leading North American manufacturer and distributor of Living Roof and Living Wall systems. GLT has hand-picked Green Apple to be their preferred partners in the Greater Toronto Area. So now it’s official: starting in 2010, Green Apple will be designing and building both Living Walls and Living Roofs for our ecologically-minded clients! If you’re interested in having a Living Wall or Living Roof in your own home, give us a call to make a meeting… and let’s discuss it over a pint at the Gladstone!
DO YOU THINK IT’S just a coincidence that the Green Apple Living Wall went up exactly twenty years to the day after the Berlin Wall came down? Neither do I, there must be mystical significance to that fact. Let this Living Wall be a powerful symbol for health and equality and freedom, and let it be the cornerstone upon which we build new ecological lives. May we be reminded of relations with the plant kingdom, and may we honour and love them as we honour and love ourselves. Amen! Now, here is a slideshow video of John, Victor and Bob putting up the Green Apple Living Wall. This is how we do it, baby! The accompanying musical track is the instrumental for the song “Be”, by Common. Enjoy!
YEAH, YEAH! USUALLY, it’s a bummer for us when it rains outside, because it puts us behind schedule, since we aren’t able to get any outdoor work done. But when it started to precipitate late night, none of us were very upset — just the opposite — because it meant that we could move forward on the indoor Living Wall project, which is very near and dear to our hearts. Today, Victor and I went to pick up the 120 individual plants, six score from 16 different varieties. And wouldn’t you know it, just when we’re loading up to transport the tropical plants across town, it starts to snow outside! Well, no matter; instead of laying them in the back of the flatbed truck, we packed the plants with us into the crowded cabin, and hightailed it back to Green Apple HQ. Big thanks to Musa, plant prophet, for all of the help picking and choosing the plants that are most appropriate. Stay tuned to see what we did with them…
