Living Walls
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…
IT RAINED BUCKETS ON FRIDAY, so we finally had a chance to work on our own living wall here at Green Apple headquarters on Northwestern Avenue. It took us far less time to construct than we had originally anticipated, a testament to the skill level of our team. We’re all really excited to be a part of this, something big, something important. Right now, I’m looking at the wall directly in front of me, and it’s good to go; all it needs now is some of the green stuff. Here are a few photos of the guys in action, putting the structure together.
WE SURE LEARNED A LOT at the Cities Alive Conference two weeks ago, but part of the problem was that there were so many speakers all presenting simultaneously, that it was impossible for any one person to take in all of the interesting information. So as a service to the community of green infrastructure designers and builders, I’m uploading this ten-minute video of one of the panels that Peter and I attended. The speaker in question is George Irwin, principal of Green Living Technologies, a company out of Rochester, New York, that has developed a pre-fabricated tray system for embedding soil on roofs and walls. George is a very emotionally engaging speaker, and he makes a very convincing case for building living walls. Well, we’re convinced, anyways!
JUST OVER A MONTH AGO, an American bank announced that it had built what it is billing as the largest Green Wall in North America. I have majorly mixed feelings about this new development. On the one hand, it gives green walls great visibility; many more people will come to know of living walls and their beneficial qualities because of this huge installation. On the other hand, this bank has chosen to feature its corporate logo as a graphical element on the green wall itself, by tracing the logo’s outline using plant varieties of different colours. This has the potential to create disinformation in two ways: one, it can confuse the general population about ecological systems and the way they work; and two, it can obfuscate the truth about the actual business practices of this bank, and their effects on the American economy. Because of this ambivalence, I have included photographs of the giant green wall, but with their corporate logos digitally blurred out.
FOR OUR FIFTIETH BLOG ENTRY, we’ve thrown together a little slide show of images of living walls from around the world: Canada, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea. Just to clarify, these are not living walls that we at Green Apple have built ourselves, but installations built by others that we are impressed and inspired by. Coupled with the Living Walls FAQ that is linked to from the Green Apple Pie Living Walls page (just click on the “living walls” link in the masthead / navigation bar above), the slideshow should provide you with all the impetus you need to get psyched up about building a living wall in your own living room! So when you’re ready to go green, give Green Apple a call!
