Living Walls and Vertical Gardens

The Earth Bank: A Living Building System

Gavin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:15:38 +0000

I love the research Matt Brook and Walter Cicack are doing on creating new building concepts. They have redesigned the brick into something that supports green life. Matt and Walter are part of a class in Eugene, Oregon that studies and develops new ways to build green. Through their experiments, they discovered a type of soil/cement combination that would be strong enough to support itself while porous enough to allow for growth of succulents right in it.

The Earth Bank living wall system has now been installed on a shipping container as a demonstration of the project at the Eugene Federal Courthouse Garden. The wall is 3″ thick and has been preplanted with sedums. The goal of the project eventually is to see whether seeds will be allowed to germinate and thrive in the vertical concrete/soil environment.

They did a few test pours of the soil/cement combination in three rounds. They’d finished 16 test blocks in the first two rounds of test pours and armed with the knowledge from those pours, they were able to find a winning combination in the third round. They wanted the wall to be light enough to mount on the shipping container, strong enough to hold it’s shape, and be fit to support plant life.

They experimented with planting a variety of sedums and hearty native grasses in this test block. In the picture, the block is nearly five weeks old and all of plants planted in it were still alive and doing well.

Test living brick

They acquired a reinforcement screen mesh from Bring Recycling Center for a few dollars. They cut the screen to size and then installed it onto the frame using the nuts and bolts at the intersecting verticies and zip ties on the lengths.

Metal support for hanging

Before pouring the mixture, they prepped the formwork by installing dozens of hemp threads through the formwork to tie the two layers of earth bank together. Recycled plastic grocery bags served as a form release. The formwork held a total of about 25 cubic feet of Earth Bank.

Prepping the forms

After pouring the first slab of the Earth Bank wall they scraped off all the excess in order to form a clean flat surface to lay the mounting frame on. They pulled the hemp twine all the way through the first slab and laid them on the side of the formwork so that they could also be pulled through the second (top) layer of the slab.

First form filled

After the second pouring, they quickly set about the work of planting our sedums into the top slab of the Earth Bank. They had collected about 30 lbs of various sedum species to be used. They had to work fast because the Earth Bank started to cure quickly. Within just 30 mins, it was becoming painful to dig into. They kept some space in between the sedums to allow room for seeds to germinate and cover the wall.

Second form filled and the planting started

They used excess plywood to cover the plants to protect them from the heat while they got established. Their tests showed the plants would be fine without the cover, but they weren’t taking any chances.

The newly formed wall covered to protect the plants

The living concrete wall

The only catch they ran into was when they removed the formwork after they’d hung it. The hemp had not successfully adhered the back slab to the mounting system and as a result had to be removed. The front slab did adhere, fortunately, and is supporting all the sedums just fine right now.

Hanging the living wall

The green soil wall hung

The living concrete wall profile

180 Sq Ft Vertical Succulent Wall

Gavin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:46:57 +0000

By Designer Joe Zazzera for Dr. Andrew Weil and Fox Restaurant Concepts-True Food Kitchen in Newport Beach California

Project Description: This is an outdoor patio vertical wall installation in Newport Beach California. The restaurant is a collaborative effort between Dr Andrew Weil (www.drweil.com) and Fox Restaurant Concepts (www.foxrc.com). The True Food Kitchen (www.foxrc.com/true_food_kitchen.html) succulent wall is approximately 180 square feet of mixed succulents. 60 individual panels and just fewer than 3000 individual succulents make this one of the largest succulent walls in southern California.

Photo #1: Vertical green wall designer Joe Zazzera was involved in this project literally from the ground up. Plant Solutions (www.plantsolutions.com) had the opportunity to specify the wall and plant type, as well as the required plumbing, irrigation, electricity, and drainage. All factors that lead to a successful installation

Photo #1

Photo #2: After the wall is built and just prior to installation, it is important to waterproof the structure. There are many different types of waterproofing. The waterproofing was in the scope of the General Contractor; they chose and installed Soprema brand waterproofing. Another great product is Grace Perm-a-Barrier.

Photo #2

Photo #3: After waterproofing, wall cleats are installed. It is important to lay these cleats out accurately and level.

Photo #3

Photo #4: The first row is a critical row. If out of plumb, the entire wall will not be true.

Photo #4

Photo #5: Irrigation feeder tube is run on the left side of the wall. Each row has 2 emitter lines, since the wall is greater than 19 feet wide, 2 emitter lines are needed per row. The left side emitter line of 12.5 feet and a second line of 25, 12.5 of which is ¼ inch feeder line.

Photo #5

Photo #6: With two full rows completely hung, the wall is shaping up nicely.

Photo #6

Photo #7: Because this is such a public, high profile, high traffic project, a small company plaque was placed in the wall. In addition to the obvious marketing benefit, it helps field questions from the wait staff by the curious public.

Photo #7

Photo #8: The completed installation exceeded the client’s expectations.

Photo #8

Photo #9: True Food Kitchen Newport Beach

Photo #9

Photo #10: Complete

Photo #10

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

Barrel Cactus Living Wall by Plant Solutions

Gavin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:37:49 +0000

The Barrel Cactus Vertical Living Wall was built in Scottsdale, Arizona. Designed by Joe Zazzera, GRP, LEED AP and installed by the Plant Solutions Team in May this year, this project is a vertical living wall using golden barrel cacti and a custom built frame. Dunham Workshop built the vertical frame out of steel. The intent was to create a piece of “living art” to draw attention to the entry of the Plant Solutions design showroom.

Photo 1: This vertical living Greenwall system was an experiment in design and fabrication. The base Frame was fabricated out of raw steel for a contemporary look. It was purposefully left un-finished as part of the intended design.

cactus living wall

Photo 2: The design called for 60 golden barrel cacti to be locked into a steel frame, rebar, soil and Rock. The entire frame will be attached to a block wall in the front of the Showroom entrance, enticing potential

Clients.

barrel cactus vertical garden

Photo 3: Since golden barrel cacti have shallow root systems, the frame was engineered with Concrete nails welded to the back of the frame. Essentially, the barrels would “hang” on the concrete Nails and be locked into place with rebar and granite lock.

Photo 4: The day after the wall was planted, we had an event at our facility so we decided to place a Piece of glass over the top of the frame and use it as a buffet table. We also created a great piece of furniture.

Photo 5: When completed, the frame, plants, soil and rock together weighed around 500 pounds. Furniture casters and elbow grease were the best way to move the completed unit around and into Place.

Photo 6: The completed installation would face west so we were a little concerned about late Afternoon sun until the plants acclimate. Simple anchor hardware was installed to hold the frame in place. The frame itself had offset feet but the anchors will keep it from movement.

Photo 7: Golden Barrel cacti are not only plentiful in our part of the country, they also create a highly sought after design effect. We especially like the clean repeating pattern look.

Photo 8: Raw steel is an honest material, the natural rust will continue to change the sculpture over time and with the weather. The root systems will further lock the wall into place over time as they develop.

Photo 9: Time will tell how the plants and the wall will hold up. The frame was designed with access For netafim laser line irrigation that could be manually connected with a water machine. Until established, they made the decision to hand control the watering.

Photo 10: The completed design accents the building, blends with the space and the design of the environment. It also creates a “wow” factor for retail passers-by and a draw for patrons.