The Vertical Garden Building is best suited to this rising urban density. It is also known as the green walls or living walls. It is a perfect blend of innovation, sustainability, and aesthetics. It converts building facades and walls into a healthy ecosystem.

What Is a Vertical Garden?

A Vertical Garden, or green wall, is a method of growing plants around or within a building wall with the use of suspended frames and panels. These panels and frames can be made from plastic, synthetic fabric, metal grids, and polystyrene. These panels are slightly detached from the building walls so that proper ventilation can be done, and they do not affect the waterproofing system of the building.

This idea was first coined by a French botanist, Patric Blanc, in 1990, and the concept was first used in the Quai Branly Museum. Today, vertical gardens are very popular worldwide, they are used in schools, residential apartments, commercial buildings, hotels, airports, etc.

What are the Benefits of a Vertical Garden

Vertical gardens not only offer a great aesthetic look, but they also help to control the inner and outer climate of the buildings. It helps to improve the air quality and offer high sound insulation.

1. Environmental Benefits

Vertical gardens act as natural air purifiers. They remove the dust particles and other polluted substances from the air and provide fresh air to residents. Plants reduce the CO2, increase oxygen, and thus improve the air quality.

2. Thermal and Acoustic Insulation

In summer, green walls absorb the heat coming into the building and maintain the building’s inner environment cool. While in winter it acts as a thermal buffer, maintaining the inner environment warm.

3. Improved Building Performance

As vertical gardens protect the building from sunlight, wind, rain, and noise thus it automatically reduces the building’s maintenance cost.

4. Social and Psychological Benefits

The corporate green walls create a calm and stress-free environment that helps to make the working environment pleasant for employees. In residential buildings and in apartments, it offers a great ambience to kids for study, it helps to enhance pride in the society.

5. Provide Food and Shelter for Wildlife

We can grow a variety of plants and species that attract birds, butterflies, and pollinators, and it makes fragmented ecosystems. As the system holds the rainwater, it provides food and shelter to wildlife.

The Process of Creating Green Walls

As the plants are going to stay inside the building, it is very important to select the best plant species that can adapt the living indoors.

To grow any plants, water and light are the two most important factors. We have to make sure that the combination of artificial light and natural light satisfies the plant’s light intake.

To provide sufficient water, we have built the proper irrigation system, as we cannot completely depend on the rainwater.

For the vertical building, we have two irrigation systems, open open-loop system and a closed-loop system

Open Loop system: It includes the water supply and the drainage system to make the vertical garden completely autonomous. The control unit manages the whole system.

Closed Loop System: It includes the external water tank, which provides water to the plants. In this case, we have to be a little careful. We need to refill the tank before the water in the tank runs out.

General Considerations and Challenges

Despite having many benefits of vertical gardens, it has some challenges and factors that we should consider:

• Timely Watering: For watering, whether we use an open-loop system or a closed-loop system, we need to be careful about on-time watering.
• Application of Fertilizers: Fertilizers provide a good amount of nutritional value that is not possible to obtain from natural resources. So timely application of fertilizers is needed.
• Removing the Dried Leaves: Too many dry leaves can affect the building’s aesthetic look. Increased dry leaves can negatively impact the cleanliness of the building’s inner space.
• Disposing the Water from Drainage: Stagnant water in the drainage system can attract several diseases. Disposing of the water from the drainage system is very important.
• Maintenance Accessibility: Timely pruning, replanting, and checking irrigation systems are required to keep the environment healthier. In large and multi-storey buildings, maintenance can be challenging and deadly as well.

Common Application of Vertical Garden

Vertical Garden buildings are exceptionally versatile, they can be attached to any vertical structure. Some of the common applications of vertical garden building are mentioned below.

·         Exterior and Interior walls of buildings

·         Corporate offices

·         Residential Buildings

·         Industrial Buildings

·         Stadiums

·         Hotels and restaurants

·         Schools, Colleges, and Hospitals

Famous Vertical Garden Design Across the Globe

Vertical gardens have taken root worldwide, each pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

• Acros, Japan:  This 1990s green architecture icon integrates 15 lush terraces, reducing energy use and connecting city dwellers to nature above street level.
• The Musée du Quai Branly in Paris: designed by Jean Nouvel and Patrick Blanc, displays a living wall that changes colors with the seasons, integrating nature into a formal museum setting.
• Bosco Vertical in Milan, Italy: Stefano Boeri’s Milan towers house people, trees, and birds—creating vertical forests that reduce sprawl, improve air quality, and restore urban biodiversity.

The Future of Vertical Gardens

As climate change intensifies and cities continue to grow, the role of vertical gardens will become even more vital. They are no longer novelties but integral tools in the urban sustainability toolkit. Innovations in modular systems, AI-driven irrigation, and plant biotechnology are making them more efficient, affordable, and resilient.

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