History of vertical gardens
The pioneer of the vertical garden was Patrick Blanc , a Parisian botanist and scholar who with his spectacular vertical gardens has covered facades and areas, both public and private, not only in the French capital.
In fact, he set up the first wall at the La Villette museum in Paris. Then 15,000 square meters in Rue d’Alsace, and finally the green facade of the Quai Branly museum, for which he has become famous.
Gradually other green architects have sprung up and have indulged themselves around the world with increasingly refined plant walls.
From London (Hotel Athenaeum) to Madrid (Caixa Forum), from Bangkok (Emporium Shopping Mall) to New Delhi (French Embassy), passing through Taipei (Concert Hall) and Milan (Bosco Verticale). And just to mention the best known examples.
Vertical garden: the technique
Vertical gardens are harmonious compositions of plants made on stratified panels or modules (PVC and felt) inserted in a metal cage , which is fixed to the walls (external vertical gardens) or to the walls (internal vertical gardens), but can also be supported by special structures.
The hydroponic cultivation method allows a constant water supply of rainwater and fertilizers, through drip systems placed in the upper part of the wall and there is no need for soil.
Green walls can be built on large panels or modules that can be assembled, which integrate well with the characteristics of the wall and guarantee the functionality of doors and windows.
The specific modern plant engineering for the construction of vertical gardens finds greater application in two types of plant:
- the ventilated facade , ideal for covering the external walls of large buildings
- the sound-absorbing walls, exclusively designed to ensure acoustic isolation and beautify urban areas in the vicinity of airports, roads and motorways, railways.
The panels constitute in practice the inorganic substrate for the vegetation of which are covered and allow to grow by exploiting the technique of hydroponic cultivation, ie without the use of soil .
The panels are equipped with fully automated irrigation and fertilization micro-systems , thus making maintenance undemanding. They are also generally placed a couple of centimeters from the wall or wall to be covered to allow air circulation and prevent moisture from stagnating