The Urban Greening // Main Events

We will be introduced into living walls design by Daniel Atherton (Inleaf Director), in order to understand the opportunities and constraints of this design element. You will have the opportunity to attend a seminar in order to acquire the necessary knowledge and guidance to develop our design successfully.

Green walls (also called vertical gardens) are internal or external walls which are made up from plants, a supporting structure, growing material and an irrigation system to allow plants to thrive. Inleaf specialises in designing, installing and maintaining living green walls to the highest standard.

Date: Monday 25th March 2019
Location: Manchester Metropolitan University

The Urban Greening // Main Events

To finalise the events weeks, we have been provided with a great space on the ground floor of another of Bruntwood’s properties, Blackfriars House. In this space, we will present our final proposals to the client in an exciting networking event. We will spend the day to obtain feedback from the building users while discussing their thoughts about our proposals. It will be a great opportunity to raise the importance of greening within the urban landscape.

Date: Friday 5th April 2019
Location: Blackfriars House, M3 2JA

The Urban Greening // Precedent Study

Synergy House // David Morley Architects // London

The original Synergy House building was deemed as not “positively contributing towards the urban streetscape” by Camden Council.  The client opted not to demolish the building and retain the bland 1950’s cladding, but to clad this in a living wall.  This is a precedent of the first living wall installed to an entire primary elevation in a Conservation Area in London. Its success is now Camden’s default advice to discourage clients wishing to demolish buildings, which are deemed as negatively impacting the street elevations.

The plants were chosen to mitigate air quality and be of ecological value to pollinating insects. It was also important to be able to maintain a manicured appearance. When choosing the plants to use, the designers considered the site conditions. The building is West facing so receives good light levels throughout the year, and is sheltered by the surrounding buildings. 

Through this cladding systems, we can avoid the demolition of buildings contributing to gentrification. Re-using existing construction would considerably reduce the carbon footprint of the building, contributing to the urban landscape’s sustainability. In addition, these cladding techniques considerably improve the aesthetic quality of the building.