26 BCBusiness may 2015 (LULULemOn) ema peteR phOtOgRaphy/cOURtesy gUstavsOn WyLie aRchitects
S
ince French botanist Patrick
Blanc planted the first vertical
garden in Paris almost 30 years
ago, living walls have sprouted
up everywhere, including
B.C.—and so have the Vancouver-based
companies that install them. And while
plants covering exterior façades may
be more familiar, living walls are being
installed inside commercial and cor-
porate spaces where they are not only
beautiful but improve air quality.
Unlike walls covered in vines that
are rooted in the ground, in vertical
gardens plants grow in a medium
attached to the wall. There are essen-
tially two types of system: hydroponic
and soil-based. Soil-based living walls
use various containers—trays, plant-
ers, pots, bags—to contain the soil.
With hydroponic setups, plants root in
fibrous mats with nutrients delivered
via the irrigation system.
Installation costs range from $80
to $250 per square foot depending on
the design, location, size and company:
since the irrigation system is the most
expensive component, the price per
square foot drops as the size of the
garden increases.
Like any garden, living walls require
watering and maintenance. Mainte-
nance services are always advisable—
some installation companies insist on
doing the maintenance for at least the
first year or provide a guarantee as part
of the service. Costs depend on the size
and accessibility of the wall, ranging
from $50 per visit to $25 to 65 per
square foot or $200 to 300 a month.
■
in the frame
As well as teaching green
wall technologies at BCIT to
contractors, architects, designers
and homeowners, horticultural
engineer Nicolas Rousseau
creates interior and exterior
living walls and sells a variety
of planting systems through
his company ByNature. The
60-square-foot wall he installed at
FS Financial in Vancouver uses his
soil-based ModuloGreen system.
An aluminum frame conceals the
automatic irrigation apparatus.
growing underground
Architek, which specializes in green
roofs, vertical greening and site water
management, used the soil-based
ModuloGreen living wall system for
the basement boardroom of Brenhill
Developments' office in Vancouver.
Since the room has no windows,
grow lights behind the stainless-steel
valance turn on for a while every night.
O f f i c e S p a c e
Growing
Up
how living walls are changing
B.c.'s corporate landscape
by Felicity Stone
