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Posts tagged clean air
Joe Zazzera and Tournesol’s Vertical Garden
Apr 28th
Joe and his company, Plant Solutions, have been providing Interior Plantscape design, installation and maintenance services in the Phoenix area since 1981. He’s actively involved in seeing indoor plants adopted into the Indoor Environmental Quality section of the LEED rating system.
According to a recent study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., indoor air can be up to 10 times more polluted than the air outside. A separate NASA study found interior plants can reduce airborne molds that cause sickness by as much as 50 percent. Through interiorscaping, Joe is actively helping remove VOC’s from the air in the homes and offices of his clients.
Terrascreen
Joe worked with Tournesol Siteworks to make a vertical garden from their TerraScreen product. Joe installed two of the 4′ by 4′ panels in Plant Solutions’ conference room to show prospective clients.
Terrascreen
This is how it works:
All modules are made of black powder-coated galvanized steel wire, with integral brackets to fasten the panel to the wall. Panels may be mounted adjacent to one another to create larger coverage areas.
Plants are placed in their 6″ grow pot directly into the black no-hole cachepot. The hanger system keeps the plants in place. Replacement is simple – just remove the plant from its cachepot, put another in its place.
A pressurized tank-based irrigation system is also available for the TerraScreen system. Ask your Tournesol Siteworks salesperson for details.
• Panel system stands 4-5/8” from wall, but requires minimum of 18” from wall for plants
• All TerraScreen™ systems should include a catch basin mounted below
• TerraScreen™ systems work best if wall behind panels is waterproofed and painted black.
• Approx. panel load – 170lbs. for 48”h, 250lbs. for 72”h TerraScreen™
From Joe:
The wall was easily installed with no excess engineering or parts. We mounted like-painted 1×2s first, and then mounted the panels to them. When we first put the wall in, we used it without the additional watering system. This has required a lot of maintenance time, so when we had the opportunity we retrofitted the wall with the watering system and now have to dedicate much less time to maintenance.
We show this wall to our clients, mostly law offices, that have fresh flower budgets in place. We can lease them this wall with a plant rotation for about the same price they are paying for their weekly or twice-weekly flower rotations. It’s much more of a conversation piece, everyone comments on how cools and hip it is – they cannot help it!
The plants in this wall are pothos along with Neorgilia “Medusa” for color from Olive Hill nurseries. The Neorgilia variety seems to hold up longer than other varieties, thereby providing a better return on investment – and the clients love them.
Interiorscaping
Tournesol Siteworks has a few more interesting vertical garden products out there that you may want to check out.
If you’re a vertical garden installer, please feel free to add yourself to the directory on this site – it’s free. Also, if you have questions or design ideas, or projects, you can post them to the forum. This is a great spot to connect with others that are looking to build or install greenwalls. If you’re interested in our website traffic stats (I’m a stats junky myself) you can see greentopsites.com. If you have created a living wall that you’d like to see featured here, let me know!
Biowalls Explored in More Detail
Feb 25th
Biowall
A 24-square meter plant wall – more specifically a “biowall” – was built in the Robertson Building. The biowall was planted with a variety of exotic and native indoor flowering plants. Each plant has its own pocket in a special planting material (they don’t tell you the exact fabric they use). Water filters through the material to the plants’ roots and fresh air is continually pumped into the room via the living biowall.
The biowall purifies and cleans the air. The plants were chosen for their ability to tolerate indoor lighting conditions and their ability to improve indoor air quality. Some of the common contaminants come from traffic outdoors as well as off-gassing from furniture, paints, drywall, photocopiers, and human fragrances in the building.
The biowall helps filter Volatile Organic Compounds or VOC’s. VOC’s are actually a group of pollutants indoors and out. While small concentrations of these chemicals aren’t dangerous, over time they can contribute to “sick building syndrome,” which can include eye, nose, and throat irritation, headaches, and dizziness.
The biowall only needs typical plant maintenance including occasional dusting and removal of wilting foliage. Two 1000 watt lights provide supplemental lighting.
Living Biowall
A separate biowall was installed in the IL Centre. It’s 3 stories high and is aesthetically pleasing as well as acting as a biofilter which removes the VOCs and CO2 from the air.
Plants are easily swapped if they don’t thrive. The plants that work on the wall will vary depending on its requirements. Leafy ferns do better than Hibiscus, and orchids have done very well. Here’s a rundown of the plants used in the biowall:
- Aglaonema (Algaomema commutatum) & Spathiphyllum spp. (mixed aroids)
- Spider plant (Chlorophytum)
- Croton (Codiaeum)
- Cordyline
- Dragon Plant (Dracaena)
- Ficus (verigated)
- Rubber Plant (Ficus Elastica)
- Ivy (Hedera)
- Palms (Dypsis, Howea, or Chamaedorea spp.)
- Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum)
- Philodendron (several species)
- Snake plant (Sansevieria)
- Purple Heart (Setcreasea pallida, similar to the common Tradescantia)
- Umbrella Plant (Schlefera)
Diagram of basic biowall setup
Two layers of a porous material make up the fabric attached to the concrete wall. It’s 1 inch thick and is made of loosely woven plastic screwed to the wall in pieces. The top layer has slits cut into it where the plants are placed. The roots hold the plants in place and grow between the layers. The plants chosen don’t spread pollen and the constantly running water and fresh air prevent mold. A vapour barrier was installed in front of the concrete and behind the drywall to prevent moisture from spreading. What makes this vertical garden into a biowall are the fans that draw the air from each of the three floors to circulate through the building. You can see an informative flash image at queensu.
