This article on Archinect by Brendan Sheehan critiques the proliferation of green living walls used on tall urban buildings as facade treatment without careful consideration of key growth concerns:
- Heat stress from adjacent building materials when deployed on the facade
- Change of altitude (e.g., 27 story green wall is a quizzical application)
- Die-back (gradual dying of plant shoots)
- Changing growth patterns
- Re-seeding
- Scale and spatial associations
Image from article
He closes the article with a quote from Sean Griffiths (director at Fashion Architecture Taste)
I think living walls have become a substitute for having any ideas.
-JT
Sustainable Design in Miami
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