THE GREENEST WALL OF THEM ALL: 15 Cool Green Walls

1. World's Largest Green Wall, the 'Bio-Lung', Aichi, Japan





The Bio-lung is a wall covered with living vegetation, and is said to be the biggest 'green wall' in the world, measuring 150 meters long and 15 meters high. The name Bio-lung was intended to communicate that this kind of structure can use the power of plants to function like a lung for cities. Over 200,000 individual plants of 200 different species, including vines, colorful flowers and fruits is part of the Bio-lung.

2. Green tapestry at Changi Airport, Singapore





Singapore landscape architect Tierra created the ,Green Tapestry, at Terminal 3 at Changi Airport. The wall spans 300 meters across the middle of the voluminous interior. The suspended I-beams and stainless steel cable structure is covered with vines, creepers and epiphytes. The 'green Tapestry' can be seen from departure and arrival areas.

Read more:
www.worldarchitecturenews.com

3. Parabienta Green Wall, Japan



Another 'green' wonder of Japan. Shimizu, one of Japan's great construction dynasties has developed a rather impressive and affordable 'green' wall at 80,000 yen per square metre. This 'wall surface afforestation system' (parabienta) is light, can be designed in different patterns and grids, and cools the building significantly.

Read more:
www.treehugger.com

4. Edouard Francois 'Flower Tower' in Paris

I wasn't really sure if this one belongs in the green wall or green roof category, but none the less, it is worth mentioning somewhere. Francois is a green architect and the creator of this unconvencional apartment tower in Paris. The building features flower pots built in at each level to surround and shade the entire structure.

5. Ann Demeulemeester Shop, Seoul, South Korea




The Ann Demeulemeester shop in Seoul, South Korea, features undulating living walls made from a geo-textile that is planted with herbaceous perennials. The green look is even carried into the interior of the store. Mass Studies, the Korean architecture firm responsible for the design, wanted to incorporate nature into what can often be cold retail environments.

6. Edificio Consorcio, Santiago, Chile




Architects Enrique Browne and Borja Huidobro are the creators of The Consorcio in Santiago, Chile. It is one of the world’s most eco-friendly office complexes. It uses up to 48% less energy thanks to the vegetation climbing up its exterior walls, which turns red in autumn.

Read more:
www.plataformaarquitectura.cl

7. Harmonia 57, Sao Paulo, Brazil






Harmonia 57 by French-Brazilian architects Triptyque is an office building in São Paulo, Brazil, with a planted facade irrigated by a mist system.

Plants grow in 'pores' set into the concrete facade and will eventually cover the building. The pipelines that serve the whole building, as well as the pumps and the water treatment system; are showing in the exterior walls, embracing them like veins and arteries of a body.

The building is rough and has a primitive elegance; a reflex of the actual concern with environmental issues and the investigation of new ways of intervention.

Read more:
www.dezeen.com

8. Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris




The Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris opened in 1984. It was designed by Andrault-Parat and Prouvé, Guvan. It is the venue for the Paris Masters ATP Tour tennis tournament and for many sports as well as rock concerts. The seating varies from 7,000 to 17,000, depending on the event. Bercy has an original and modern pyramid shape and is completely covered by lawns.

Read more:
www.greenroofs.com

9. The Moss Room, San Francisco



The atmosphere at The Moss Room Restaurant in San Francisco is certainly unlike any other. Diners descend into a subterranean room, housed within the Academy of Sciences, that has a unique feature: a wall covered in moss. Designed by Olle Lundberg, the restaurant features a 40-foot living wall that draws moisture from a large water tank in which African jumping fish will reportedly soon live.

Read more:
www.themossroom.com

10. CaixaForum Museum, Madrid




Patric Blanc designed the beautiful vertical garden on the exterior walls of the CaixaForum in Madrid. More than 15,000 plants from more than 250 species cover an entire side of the historical building, built in 1899.

The plants are arranged in such a way that they form a painterly design, with arches of color creating a sense of movement. It is 24 metres high and takes up one wall of the square in front of the building. It has 15,000 plants of 250 different species and has become an instant drawing card to the area.

Read more:
www.gomadrid.com

11. Emporium Shopping Centre in Bangkok




Another example of Patrick Blanc’s stunning green walls, the Siam Paragon shopping center in Bangkok Thailand features a lush, rainforest-like cascade of ferns, vines, sedum and moss in various shades of green, yellow, red and purple.

This elevator in Bangkok's Emporium shopping center stretches vertical horticulture to a height of more than 30m (98 ft.). Such heights pose challenges to upkeep: Twice a year, the plants are cut back and the irrigation mechanism and wall framework are inspected.

Read more:
www.siamparagon.co

12. Restaurant Japonez in Mexico



Restaurant Japonez offers hungry souls searching for Asian-inspired dishes a serene landscape seated between a stunning living wall, wood, and an incredible glass enclosure. Designed by Serrano Cherrem Architects.

Read more:
www.cheremserrano.com

13. Musee du Quai Branly in Paris



The building was designed by architect Jean Nouvel. The "living wall" (200m long by 12m tall) on part of the exterior of the museum was designed and planted by Gilles Clément and Patrick Blanc. The "living wall" at installation was quite healthy and vibrant, however, over time, the inadequate support system for the plants roots, irrigation and drainage have become visually evident. The museum complex contains several buildings, as well as a mediatheque and a garden.

Read more:
www.quaibranly.fr

14. The Living Wall in the Qantas First Lounge, Sydney





Marc Newson, together with associate architects Sébastien Segers and Woods Bagot, is responsible for the stunning experience that is the Qantas First Lounge.There are 8,500 plants in the 2000 square metre Sydney Airport lounge, 280 square metres of which is greenery. It goes to show that you don't need a lot of space to make sure that nature and plant-life is close by.

Read more:
www.specifier.com

15. Shuhei Endo Stadium, Hyogo, Japan




The continuous surface of roof and wall is covered with plants on artificial soil in which the bark of Japanese cedar and cypress are mixed. Mixed soil with plant seeds of 10 kinds is sprayed on the slant of 70°in maximum. At the beginning of the spraying, the state of the surface was just black soil.

Normally large interior space requires artificial lighting even during day time. Here, it obtains the required illumination by providing three large top light to reduce the energy consumption of artificial lighting. Shading seal was pasted on the glass to reduce the temperature increase by direct rays of sun, in addition to this, louver openings are installed for gravitational ventilation around the top lights.

Read more:
www.archdaily.com

BUILDINGS THAT WILL RAISE THE (GREEN) ROOF : 10 Great Green Roofs

More and more urban architecture is becoming 'green', with the most popular feature being a green roof. Unlike earth-sheltered homes, such as caves; a green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil. Green roofs are also referred to as eco-roofs, vegetated roofs and living roofs.

1. The OUTrial House, Poland






Polish architects KWK Promes designed the OUTrial House in Ksiazenice, Poland. the idea was to “carve out” a piece of the grass-covered site, move it up and treat it as the roofing to arrange all the required functions underneath. The only way to reach it was through the interior of the house.

www.kwkpromes.pl

2. Hundertwasser building, Vienna





Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser was an Austrian painter, architect and sculptor. He first achieved fame for his boldly-coloured paintings, but he is more widely renowned today for his revolutionary architectural designs, which incorporate natural features of the landscape, and use of irregular forms in his building design. The Hundertwasserhaus block in Vienna, built between 1983 and 1986, features undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. He took no payment for the design of Hundertwasserhaus, declaring that it was worth it, to "prevent something ugly from going up in its place".

3. California Academy of Sciences





The new Academy in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, is a masterpiece in sustainable architecture, blends seamlessly into the park's natural setting, and is filled with hundreds of innovative exhibits and thousands of extraordinary plants and animals. The Academy features an aquarium, planetarium, living roof and four story rainforest among other things.

www.calacademy.org

4. SYNTHe, Urban Rooftop, LA



SYNTHe is an urban rooftop on the Flat building in LA, developed by SCI-arc professor Alex Rochas and his students. There’s a restaurant on the ground floor whose menu changes according to the harvest, and compost is returned to the roof. The roof also provides many of the benefits of a green roof, including the filter of pollutants and thermal insulation.

youngandbrilliant.net

5. School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore





6. Remota Hotel, Chili




The inspiration are the sheep farm’s buildings of Patagonia. Not the main houses of the estancias, their warm interiors closed to their place, but the buildings made for the sheep farm works where daily life in Patagonia is lived, and finds an splendor of its own; the barns for drying the sheep’s hides and for the many other works at the estancias, that have to be done inside because of the cold or the wind, or both.

www.archdaily.com

7. Silberfisch Houseboat




With the cost of living in large cities steadily rising and the recession continuing to bite, there is an increasing need to search for viable alternatives. Bernhard Urich along with Flo Florian and Sascha Akkermann of German design firm Confused-Direction looked to one such alternative in their quest for urban affordability, a thoroughly modern floating home that also allows the flexibility of relocation on a whim.

Sporting a ‘green’ roof planted with vegetation, producing zero emissions and utilising reclaimed wood where possible, the Silberfisch houseboat doesn’t need to occupy a valuable plot of city land so is an exciting opportunity to live in the city at a fraction of the cost of building a house.

www.weheartstuff.co.uk

8. The ACROS Fukuoka, Japan






In Fukuoka City in Japan, the 'ACROS Fukuoka' building has two very distinct sides: one side looks like a conventional office building with glass walls, but on the other side there is a huge terraced roof that merges with a park. The garden terraces, which reach up to about 60 meters above the ground, contain some 35,000 plants representing 76 species. A huge semicircular atrium and the triangular lobby provide contrast to the greenery, in this space is a symphony hall, offices and shops.

www.metaefficient.com

9. The Art and Exhibition Hall, Germany




A giant cyber arts centre, the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany is impressive. The building features the hall that includes seating for up to 500 in the Forum for theatre, concerts, readings, conferences and film showings, an outdoor, covered stage for summer concerts and a stunning roof garden open to visitors.

www.bonn-region.de

10. Parliament House Canberra




Parliament House, Canberra is probably one of the world’s earliest and most successful green roofs. The Parliament House building was constructed in 1988 for $1.1 billion. The reason for the design of the green roof at the time was not due to sustainability as an imperative, rather it was conceived of “in order to preserve the shape of the hill on which it was built.” The Parliament building was constructed into the top of the hill and the roof was grassed over.

greenroofs.wordpress.com