French botanist Patrick Blanc has developed a system for truly sublime vertically-oriented living walls. Rising to several storeys, the Mur Végétal is a tropical garden embedded into felt substrate. His latest work can be seen at the Nouvel designed Musée du quai Branly.
Applying his profound knowledge of local microclimates and plant integration, Blanc is known to be one of the only people who can pull off a lasting, self-sustaining, vertical system outdoors. In the nebulous region where art, landscape and architecture intersect, more opportunities are emerging for seeding the urban environment with something besides Kentucky Bluegrass and strangled sidewalk trees. As urban designers continue to set precedents, we hope it will get easier for cities to bring planting into more unexpected locations, knitting bridges, roofs, and walls into greenways. At any rate, another small survey seems in order... Further reading: More of the Green Latticework A Newly Electric Green – Sustainable Energy, Resources and Design
