Largest living wall unveiled in Birmingham
Living walls are becoming increasingly popular among consumers and companies alike, and it is not hard to see why. After all, they can offer a range of aesthetic and practical benefits.
Recently, a huge living wall was unveiled in Birmingham. According to the Birmingham Post, it is probably the largest of its kind in Europe and it is garlanded with more than 600 square metres of plants.
The 220-metre long wall is part of the Two Snowhill building, which is the biggest office development underway outside of the capital.
Work on the project started early last year with the construction of a steel frame along with a viaduct wall. This was followed by the installation of panels containing thousands of plants.
The news source noted that these plants were pre-grown in purpose-built panels in a nursery in Holland and they arrived in the UK ready to be attached. According to the firm responsible for creating the wall, visitors will be able to see it grow and flourish over the summer months.
As well as the greenery, the wall includes perforated aluminium panels that had been designed to capture artificial and natural daylight. Meanwhile, programmable up-lighters illuminate the wall at night.
According to the publication, these lights “bring the wall to life at night and create constantly changing patterns and the illusion of depth and movement”.
Meanwhile, the building itself covers 310,000 square feet and comprises 303,000 square feet of Grade A office accommodation and 7,000 square feet of ground floor retail space.
The installation of living walls on new buildings can help ensure they really stand out from the crowd. Also, in cities, these green features can be a welcome relief from the masses of concrete, stone and other more traditional building materials used. It seems likely that more of these green features will spring up around the UK and elsewhere over coming years.
