Project Overview

Director and Founder of The Greenwall Company, Mark Paul has extensive plant knowledge and planting design, which stem from a childhood/lifelong passion for lithophytic and epiphytic plants, and their habitats. Originally training as a Marine Biologist and working for the CSIRO, Mark worked intimately with their habitats, enabling him to successfully design and create a system that was not only energy efficient but also long lasting.

Due to Mark’s designs, The Greenwall Company can pride themselves on building their walls from 94 per cent of recyclable materials that would otherwise be destined for Australian landfill, taking the benefit of their greenwalls and green roofs beyond just their aesthetic appeal.

The residential greenwall built at Mark’s private residence has been designed to mimic the growing conditions found where greenwalls occour in nature.

The most immediate benefit of a greenwall is its incredible beauty. The greenery is literally a living skin, allowing unlimited design opportunities. In Australia alone there are over 5,000 suitable native lithophytic and epiphytic plant species that colonise on rocks and trees.
Greenwalls have also been proven to reduce ambient temperature and offer sound and other insulating qualities to a buildings exterior skin.

Organisation

The Greenwall Company

Project Brief

Greenwalls, more commonly known as vertical gardens are a great way to free up space when installed in homes whether big or small and are a great alternative to the regular garden bed that can be more often than not, hard to manage and maintain.

Not only are they a great space saver they also look incredibly beautiful but the greenery is literally a living skin, allowing unlimited design opportunities. This residential greenwall actually features 140 different plant species, which Mark has collected on various Trips around the world.
The greenwall is watered via a rainwater tank, which is filter through an automated system. Any excess water from the greenwall is also captured in a tray due to the fact that the greenwall sits on a deck, this excess water from the greenwall is then in turn recycled into the nearby further highlighting The Greenwall Company’s move towards sustainable design.
Initial benefits of the greenwall is the low maintainance factor, which in turn equates to maintenance very quarter, otherwise the tailored irrigation system takes over. . So if you travel a lot you no longer have to worry about coming back to dead plants.

Project Innovation/Need

Installing a greenwall makes a valuable contribution to the external environments and providing an inhabitable environment to promote biodiversity. They are also aesthetically pleasing the eye which in turn increase the worth of the real eastate.

Other benefits include:
- Low maintenance – the wall can be left to grow out and can be maintained a couple times a year
- Improved air quality – Greenwalls are a natural air-filter. The plants in the greenwall help metabolise ?toxins in the air, while at the same time releasing oxygen into the air but at a much larger scale than ?the usual potted plants.
- Noise level reduction – When placed inside, greenwalls can help reduce noise levels. The plants in ?the greenwall block high frequency sounds and the structure it is built on can help reduce low ?frequency noise.
- Energy cost reduction – In the warmer months, greenwalls help cool the air through the process of ?evapotranspiration, which lessens the use of the air conditioner.
- Health benefits

Design Challenge

No design challenges were encountered during the process of building the greenwall billboard.

Sustainability

The greenwall has been created and designed with its own unique automated irrigation system, which has been built into the installation. Over a 12-month period, a standard panel will only require the equivalent of 4.5 showers worth of water to maintain the wall, with future plans to use black water.
Not only that, the greenwall has also been built to last the life of the building and require minimal maintainance. Made with 94% of the materials recycled, it is an innovative way to take waste products destined for Australian landfill to reduce our carbon footprint, while creating a beautiful space.

The components used to build the greenwalls have also been manufactured in the most cost effective and environmentally responsible way possible. The media used in the greenwall will always be sources as close to the point of use as possible to minimise carbon miles/km, and this is the same for plant materials used and also the labour hired to physically build the greenwall.