Admittedly, there are a few limitations of Living Walls

In these past discussions about living walls to compliment your Metal building project, We’ve talked about their advantages and their wow factor, but haven’t said too much about any disadvantages…we might as well cover those too, just to be thorough. If you’re not scared off – and I really don’t think you will be, then you need to take a deeper look at going green and figure out just how to go about creating your own awesome living wall to go with your awesome metal building project!

Maintenance – for indoor projects, monthly maintenance programs are about the same as other indoor gardens but your vegetated walls will require a much higher level of maintenance than climbers on a vertical frame. That fact, and the sheer height of some outdoor living walls can be a challenge to some – unless you’ve prepared yourself with a nice high safe ladder or stuck to shorter versions that are much more accessible for maintenance and harvesting. Small spaces can pack a lot of veggies when you garden using vertical gardens – and so unique!

Energy/Resource Use – The indoor walls may use more energy to supply light and the pumping of water and nutrients through the system. Of course, you’ll surely save on Vitamin D pills through the winter and can say goodbye to SAD.

Mould/Moisture Problems – Proper air flow and water movement must be established and monitored to help ensure harmful moulds do not grow, particularly in indoor applications. Also, the constant presence of moisture means you have to ensure that the walls are well separated from any adjacent structure and have air movement around and behind to keep it dry to prevent molds from growing.

Pollens – Designers must consider pollen generation when choosing plants, especially for indoor applications or for those outdoors but beside windows that you’ll want to open.

The Advantages of Living Walls

Continuing our prior discussions on living walls for your metal building projects, following are just a few of the advantages of living living walls:

Retain Storm-water –living walls can be designed to slowly use up the storm-water that has landed on the roof or other hard surfaces of a building site as its main source of water. As plants in a soil-less design definitely need a relatively constant supply of water, this will probably need to be replenished in hot and dry temperatures. Use of a cistern that slowly drains down into the pockets that the plants are growing out of would work well. Some cleansing is provided by the plants and soils, and some by the bacteria that eventually inhabits the growing pockets and root surfaces.

Remove Pollutants – Living walls trap many airborne pollutants and particulates on the plant surfaces. And, plants use up Carbon Dioxide. A four story high living wall inside the Bell Canada’s Creekbank facility in Toronto (pictured above) is not only beautiful but is designed to remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Carbon Dioxide from the indoor air. Air Quality Solutions Ltd, is a Toronto company that markets their ‘bio-wall’ as designed for such bio-filtration.

Reduce Footprints – Living walls make excellent use of vertical space within cities, providing microhabitat, aesthetic benefits, and air cleansing where none would have typically existed before. The high ratio of wall to roof area in urban spaces means the potential to generate positive environmental changes via green walls versus green roofs is also much higher.

Conserve Water – The circulating water in a living wall evaporates less than in a horizontal garden so can work well in drier climates.

Save Energy – living walls add thermal mass to a building and their processes help moderate indoor and outdoor building temperature. They provide shade and an insulating dead air space on the surface of the building wall. Vegetation lowers adjacent air temperatures by evaporating enormous amounts of water from leaf surfaces. One Canadian study found the reduction of summer cooling load by living walls was even more dramatic than for green roofs. The same study showed that significant reductions in the urban heat island effect could be attained if living wall technology was used extensively.

Weight – The engineered soil-less systems (PVC layer, felt & metal frame for example) can weigh less than 30 kg/m2 – this despite being constantly wet, so are considered fairly light-weight for adding on to existing walls.

Habitat – Living walls can easily meet the habitat requirements of small wildlife species, such as birds and insects; or fish and small pond life if that is incorporated into the design. 

Aesthetics/ Livability – most living walls are designed for artistic effect and to enhance livability by providing calming greenery in very urban spaces. Check out these dramatic large-scale examples in Europe, Asia and the US that were designed by botanist Patrick Blanc of France. 

Reduce Noise – Green walls can help reduce sound transmission into buildings due to the layer of plants, growing medium and, depending upon the design, the dead air space between the living and conventional walls.   

Growing Food -While it is hard to find an example of a living wall designed for food growing, some proponents suggest home made versions for greenhouse walls and vegetable gardens.

More on Living Walls

Living Wall at Bell Canada's Creekbank Campus

In a previous blog, Try Living Walls for a definite ‘wow’ factor with your metal building, we discussed adding living walls to your Pre-fabricated Metal building project.

But I just don’t feel that justice was done to this greenest of innovative living so feel the need to discuss more thoroughly the many bonuses that can be enjoyed through the addition of living walls.

The structural weight, moisture retention, nutrient supply and water distribution are all important design considerations in living walls. And there are so many great types of living walls with such stunning looks  and environmentally friendly green facades. With a multitude of wonderfully innovative vertical structural systems, such as those that support climbing plants on the building exterior (where climber plants and vines. Supported by stainless steel cables, webbing or metal grids) they grow upwards from grade or planters. Other types are:

• Active Walls – like the one at Queen’s University in Ontario, are indoor features joined to the building’s air circulation system where fans draw air through the living wall before being circulated through the building for increased oxygen and reduced pollutant levels.
• Inactive Walls – are also indoor features, but they rely on passive open design for free air circulation rather than on mechanical air systems.

Outdoor Living Walls – are the engineered building envelope systems that allow a screen or layer of living plant material to be suspended at some distance from the outside wall of a building. Specialized membranes and drainage layers support the growth of a range of mosses, vines and perennial plants.

Try Living Walls for a definite ‘wow’ factor with your metal building

So, you’ve heard all the experts talking about going green, and environmentally responsible living. Well, now you can combine the two with your Pre-fabricated Metal building project.

The greenest and most beautiful thing you can do to your metal building project is to integrate green, or living walls into your landscaping. Whether you create them indoors, or outdoors, these are absolutely beautiful! Integrate greenery into your environment through the building of living walls; you will have created a beautiful and healthy environment.

You can use self-building kits of wood or metal to grow succulents and other plants through strategically placed cuts in the panels. Some panels initially sit flat allowing the roots to settle with gravity, and then the panels are gradually raised to their permanent vertical position and the plants continue to grow. Others are arranged so that the plants are placed into pockets in the vertical panels.

There are a great many benefits to living walls outdoors:

• living walls can function as rainwater catchments systems
• in an environment where space is limited, they can serve as vegetable gardens
• their plants are natural filters for cleaner living space

And there are many benefits to living walls indoors:

• Living walls trap many airborne pollutants and particulates on the plant surfaces
• Their plants take up Carbon Dioxide, and provide bio-filtration of interior environments
• The plants remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from the air

Living walls can include specialized and engineered envelope systems where vegetation is planted, irrigated and grown in modular elements, which are secured to, or integrated with, the wall of a building. With these types of living walls, whether indoors or out, plants typically grow, without soil, between layers of fibrous material (such as felt or plastic mesh), or in pre-vegetated panels, that are suspended in front of a building wall.

Based on the principles of hydroponics, nutrient enriched water drips slowly to the bottom of the wall where any excess is pumped up and re-circulated.

Some living walls even cleverly incorporate a pool at the base of the structure and can include fish and small animals such as amphibians.