Living Wall for Team London Bridge and Better Bankside

Posted by Scotscape on 1st November 2019 -

Zero Water Waste Living Wall

This 76m2 living wall has been installed as part of a series of interventions that are part of the Borough High Street Low Emission Neighbourhood initiative led by Team London Bridge and Better Bankside, supported by the Mayor of London.

Interventions are located to highlight calm and healthy walking routes in the busy London Bridge and Bankside area and are complemented by initiatives to promote green business practices like reduced deliveries and clean vehicles.

The wall is owned by the Guy's and St Thomas' charity who own the Orchard Lilse Building, and who are facilitating this project and will support its upkeep.

The living wall has been designed to enhance biodiversity and improve air quality.

Over seventy three species are included in the living wall of which 30 are RHS approved and 18 are RHS approved for supporting pollinators. The wall has been carefully curated to provide year round coverage for pollinating insects birds and butterflies.

To improve air quality the heterogeneous plant topography (high/low planting) allows for higher rates of particulate matter (PM) impaction through the living wall, increasing deposition rates and filtering the air more effectively of damaging PM10, PM5, PM2.5 and PM1. Plants included in the design such as stachys, pinus mugo and convolvulus are particularly effective at trapping particulate matter.

The topography of the wall has been facilitated by bespoke panels of the Scotscape Fytotextile system which have larger planting pockets, allowing bigger species and even trees to grow on the vertical surface. The design compostion uses irregular organic patterns to emulate nature.

To irrigate the living wall Scotscape have installed rainwater harvesting which is on a recirculation system, meaning that not a drop of water is wasted.

The wall was unveiled on 14th June with presentations and discussion from Team London Bridge, The Deputy Mayor for Energy and the Environment Shirley Rodrigues, Landscape Architects Untitled Practice and Scotscape.