Historically gardens tend to be horizontal or, at best, undulating. But nowadays, not only for esthetical reasons but also because of the widespread wish to create a green and healthy urban environment, home owners and local authorities sometimes see opportunities for vertical gardens. A spectacular example of this trend can be found in Paris, where the Musée du Quai Branly shows a beautiful green facade. In Vancouver, we saw a ‘living wall’ at the city aquarium.
For readers of this newsletter the fact that green cities provide us with a cleaner, healthier environment is not new. Still, our attention is drawn to a recent study, showing that green walls can potentially reduce air pollution in “street canyons,” corridors between tall buildings. A green wall in a street canyon trapped or absorbed large amounts of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter—both pollutants harmful to people.
Benefits include cooling city blocks, reducing loud noises, and improving a building’s energy efficiency. A long list of benefits, tob e gained by greening the urban environment, especially walls, is available: Check out the complete list of green wall benefits.