11 March 2010

Living Walls at Adelaide Zoo

It's not just the giant pandas that are injecting new life into Adelaide Zoo, reports Judy Friedlander.

Two living, breathing green walls adjoining the giant panda exhibit at Adelaide Zoo in South Australia have just been unveiled, in the spirit of creating a haven for the endangered animals.

New technologies are encouraging landscapers and architects to consider walls as well as roofs as potential green space.

Adelaide Zoo sees the new green walls or vertical gardens as helping to blur the line between garden and building and are also aware of the environmental benefits of added green space.

Fytogreen Australia created the two vertical gardens for Adelaide Zoo. Total plant numbers are estimated to be about 10,000 for both walls.

“Many different species create an ecosystem of large biodiversity,” says Fytogreen’s Stuart Tyler. “The environmental benefits of vertical gardens are many.”

The Fytowall system consists of modules composed of bio-degradable thick foam and drip irrigation lines provide moisture and nutrients.

University of NSW Environmental Manager, Dr Paul Osmond, says studies show that efficient green walls can provide a three to five degree C insulating factor. This can help reduce the urban heat island effect common in built-up areas.

Many interior living walls are built to improve air quality and are sometimes called biowalls. Research has found plants and their growing medium have removed significant amounts of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) from indoor air.

All helping to transform the concrete jungle into jungled concrete, as it were.

The Panda exhibit Architecture, Landscape, Interior & Planning by HASSELL. Thanks to @SAPresident.

Fytogreen Australia
fytogreen.com.au

adelaide zoo living wall

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I've seen both the outside wall adjacent the new zoo entrance and the indoor wall in the slightly less new envirodome, and they are brilliant! They look fantastic and I can't help but want to touch the plants. I love that they used SA natives too!