Living Walls and Vertical Gardens » Misc

ECObitat’s easy shelter’s have living walls

Gavin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:38:55 +0000

“ECObitat” is a prefab home entered in Something Green Challenge and won second place. Brazilian designer Felipe Campolina created the system made of recyclable industrial materials to provide relief housing/shelter during emergencies. The framing was done in steel and it supports walls of OSB plates. The windows are made of tempered glass and the walls and roof are finished with greenery which provides added acoustic and thermal insulation. The ECObitat reuses grey water and uses solar water heating while electricity is generated with wind turbines on the roof.

ECObitat living wall

The modular system is 2.44 m x 3,10 m x 12.20 m, scaled from the standard OSB plate (oriented strand board) of 1.22 m x 2.44 m, defining areas of flexible multipurpose that can be progressively coupled and adequate for transport. Legs telescope from the base ensuring a good adaptability to different types of topographies. The responsible use of recyclable and industrial materials results in a speedy and prompt delivery of manufacturing space modules.

ECObitat vertical garden

This constructive system deals at the same time ecological issues, by proposing spaces environmentally sustainable, and social issues by proposing modules capable to use in emergency and relief housing.

ECObitat

Living Sculptures

Gavin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:00:03 +0000

These are fascinating sculptures done by Robert Cannon. He’s got a B.A. with distinction in Architecture, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. He calls the work Terraform Sculpture and uses concrete and mosses with most of his creations. He’s done a life size chess set out of concrete and moss as well as other amazing sculptures you can see on his site.

Moss concrete gauntlet

Concrete moss bust

Venus Living Sculpture

Apollo Living Sculpture 5 ft tall!

Concrete and moss art designs

Potential scaled up version of previous image

Vertical moss and concrete sculpture

You can see more at a great landscape design blog - Studio G.

Vertical Garden Community

Gavin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:04:59 +0000

Since starting this blog, I’ve gotten a number of emails about:

How to make a moss wall
Where to get Sphagnum moss
Who installs vertical gardens in LA
Whether I’d personally be able to install a vertical garden in the UAE or the UK
Where to get lighting systems for a living wall
Whether I’d want to talk about a certain company’s living wall system
Etc…

I say that to say I think there’s room for getting a bit of a living wall community going here. As some people are learning how to build living walls, others are wanting them installed, and others are offering installation services, we could share some knowledge with each other by providing answers to questions and solutions to problems.

There’s about 300 people that come to this site per day. Each visitor views an average of over 3 pages per visit.. and the only topic covered here really is living walls. That’s a pretty niche group with a specific interest.

So I installed a forum.

I’ve put up 4 forum topics for you to post in.. but if you want more topics let me know by commenting below and I’ll add them. It’s free and easy to register so if you’ve got questions/problems or want to showcase the living walls you’ve built or want to offer some advice please feel free to post it on the forum. It’ll take a bit to get the forum rolling most likely.. but slowly and steadily we can hopefully get a community of people interested in living walls exchanging solutions and services that’ll help us all out!

If you want to help kick things off, here’s the forum!

By the way.. I had previously blogged about putting up a living wall installation directory. I never found the right software to do a decent job with that… but I added a section in the forum for installers to put their information in. So, if you install vertical gardens, please post your info in the directory to share with others. You can post your contact info or your website if you like.. along with any pictures you want to share.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you’re wanting a living wall installed, you may want to consider posting the job in the living wall forum and see what happens. I’ve added a section there too if you like.

The forum is pretty new.. so if you’re having problems with it at all, please email me at walsh dot gavin @ gmail.com or use the contact link above.

Moss Chair

Gavin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:04:59 +0000

While it’s not a vertical garden.. it’s definitely an eye-catching design. It’s called Living Stone and it’s a stone chair with a moss seat from Betong o Smide (Swedish). Designed by Josefine Premberg and produced by Concrete Forging in Trelleborg AB Sweden, it’s made from frost-resistant concrete and weighs 500 kg. The planting depth is 18 cm and costs 19,000 (I think Euros) plus VAT tax.

Living Stone Moss Chair

“Livingstone is the result of a project with a focus on furniture design Architectural Education in Lund. The idea for Livingstone is based on contrasts and expectations. When you see a shape often expect a certain type of material. I wanted to see what would happen if one completely different from the material expectations. I decided to assume the form language in a classic armchair, and drag it to its extreme simplicity and to give focus to the main, material choices.

Concrete is a material which in the eyes of many, unfortunately, is still perceived as hard, raw, angular and industrial. I wanted to take this opportunity to prove otherwise, and instead show the enormous potential of concrete offers. I wanted to give the expression soft and well, inviting and alive. The idea of vegetation as an energizing factor for the armchair was born through these ways of thinking. The moss gives life to the concrete and the concrete provide vegetation a calm and stable foundation to rest upon. The goal was to create an inviting and contrast full armchair, or sculpture, as we will be happy to look at and use.

Livingstone is open to a large audience. It places both in a private garden in public. Good concrete durability allow it to stand out there all year. Maybe you want to place the chair on the lawn under the apple tree, or on the patio outside the kitchen door with fragrant herbs planted in the seat, or perhaps down to the decoration at the entrance to his shop or his office. Of course you can also have the chair indoors if you so desire.”