Increasingly, people want to enjoy the advantages of living in a city with the many cultural offerings and recreational opportunities. In addition, work tends to be close to home, and stores and other activities also remain within a short distance. To enjoy these benefits, people have up until now accepted living in a tiny area. Their houses have been small flats, without a garden, park, or forest nearby for relaxation or exercise. In addition, city dwellers exist in a highly populated environment and need infrastructure, including reasonable living space and transport. Dense and numerous buildings, and packed streets without green areas can make a city unattractive. The consequences of dense cities and climate change result in many problems including the urban heat island effect. These issues could be mitigated by including more natural areas within city boundaries (the urban green infrastructure). At the same time, that these green areas could provide cooling, the city could become more attractive again, with more comfortable living areas near nature. One approach is to use living walls to integrate vegetation into our cities. Living walls are a system for growing vegetation vertically and, therefore, use previously unused space of facades and walls. The plants on these walls do not need a specific connection to the ground, because the plants grow directly into the wall. These green walls include sources of growing media or substrate for the plants they contain. The objective of this study was to test a new kind of living wall system built from polyester. The research focused on the suitability of plants to survive using the polyester living wall system. We analysed the development of 30 different perennials and seedings over the course of three years. We built field experiments with walls exposed to the north, south, east, and west. The data showed which plants were well suited for living walls in a temperate oceanic climate, and plotted differences as their visual appearance developed throughout the seasons. With these findings, we will plan a more pleasant liveable, green city for the future!
Maren Stollberg won the ISHS Young Minds Award for the best oral presentation at the VIII International Conference on Landscape and Urban Horticulture, which was held virtually in Italy in December 2021.
Maren Stollberg, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Department of Urban Horticulture and Planting Design, Von-Lade-Str.1, 65366 Geisenheim, Germany, e-mail: maren.stollberg@hs-gm.de
The article is available in Chronica Horticulturae