Green walls are planting the seeds of sustainability in the built environment
Written by Annie Hall | July 25, 2023
People should “dream vertical”, quips Sam Collins, general manager of Australian green wall designer and installer Vertikal.
Green walls, or vertical gardens as they are also known, are regularly lauded in the pages of architectural and design journals. But they are also increasingly on the “must have” list for new corporate builds because of their sustainability and wellbeing credentials.
Those huge vertical walls we often find in office spaces represent a lot of dead space, says Collins, and vertical gardens are a way to decorate that space and effectively “lower the urban heat island effect”.
There are an extra 120,000 plants hanging from walls around Australia thanks to about 60 installations completed by Vertikal. The projects span from boutique installations such as a nine-square metre vertical garden on the balcony of Universal Music in Sydney, to a stunning preserved moss and foliage green wall in the reception area of Darwin’s newest commercial precinct, Manunda Place.
“I love what we do … bringing more plants into the world,” says Collins, whose company is benefitting from an upsurge in interest in a building solution that can help cool spaces, reduce daytime temperature fluctuations, and improve air quality.
