Living Wall

Walking through Tokyo Japan will expand anyone's design perspective…..however, don't let the grand Ginza buildings and Mori's Roppongi Hills overshadow some great smaller scale design implementations. Specifically I find incredibly fascinating the introduction of “living wall's,” as shown in this building near Tokyo's Atago Green Hills. Not just climbing vines, this system embed's soil within a metal structure bolted to a concrete exterior. Quick internet research tells me this is not a “Green Facade,” a term reserved climbing vines, flower boxes and trellis overgrowth, instead, this more intricate system is referred to as a “Living Wall.” Living Walls are systems whereby there is soil foundation embedded within or attached to the facade wall, allowing plants to grow, or “live,” on the wall.

Regardless of whether “Living Wall” or “Green Facade,” these systems pay off. According to Nigel Dunnett in Architecture Week, shading walls with these types of systems “can reduce the daily temperature fluctuation by as much as 50 percent, a fact of great importance in warm-summer climate zones.” In fact, he further explains that “Buildings are more effectively insulated against high summer temperatures by shading than by building insulation into the structure, for the simple reason that shading stops the heat from entering in the first place.” With savings 50% projected, this is something we need to figure out how to implement within some of our new projects.