A green wall is a wall, either free-standing or part of a building, that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and, in some cases, soil or an inorganic growing medium. The concept of the green wall dates back to 600 BC with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The modern green wall with integrated hydroponics was invented by Stanley Hart White at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1931-38. White holds the first known patent for a green wall, or vertical garden, conceptualizing this new garden type as a solution to the problem of modern garden design. More recently, the larger green walls concept has been utilized with innovative hydroponics technology. The vegetation for a green façade is always attached on outside walls; with living walls this is also usually the case, although some living walls can also be green walls for interior use. For living walls there are many methods including attaching to the air return of the building to help with air filtration. They are also referred to as living walls, biowalls, vertical gardens or more scientifically VCWV (vertical vegetated complex walls).
While Patrick Blanc is sometimes credited as having developed the concept in the late 1980s, the actual inventor is Stanley Hart White, a Professor of Landscape Architecture who patented a green wall system in 1938.
There are two main categories of green walls: green façades and living walls. Green façades are made up of climbing plants either growing directly on a wall or, more recently, specially designed supporting structures. The plant shoot system grows up the side of the building while being rooted in the ground. With a living wall the modular panels are often made of stainless steel containers, geotextiles, irrigation systems, a growing medium and vegetation. There are three types of growth media used in living walls: loose media, mat media and structural media.
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Great article! Thank you for featuring two of our Green Walls at Longwood Gardens and a private residence in Miami. You can read more about these projects here: http://gsky.com/projects/longwood-gardens/
http://gsky.com/projects/indian-creek-residence-green-wall/
It's nice to see you bring insights to the readers about the history of Green Walls and how they came about throughout the years!