Green Wall by Elmich Survives Strong Typhoon

Elmich Green Wall Braves Strongest Typhoon of 2016By ELMICH AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

News Date: 05 Jun 2017

Category: Buildings

Elmich's VersiWall GM (VGM) Green Wall at JI Hotel Xiamen Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street survived the strongest typhoon to hit China in nearly 70 years.

Super typhoon ‘Meranti’ made landfall in Xiamen City, Fujian with a wind gust speed of around 170 km/h bringing heavy downpours and causing major disruptions to the electricity and water supplies affecting more than 3.2 million homes located in the region.

Elmich VGM mounting system is equipped with anti-lift arms and proprietary anchoring pilaster system, and certified by independent international test authority to withstand wind uplift from various directions up to 110km/h.

In this application, the real test of nature has proven that a product of quality can withstand the strongest typhoon.

For more information regarding the Green Wall at JI Hotel Xiamen, click here.

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Quite a positive outcome with implications for many other tropical areas where the security of tall green walls has been quite a bit of a worry in cyclonic / hurricane / typhoon conditions around the world.

Green Walls - Featured Inside And Outside

Seen recently - a new green wall in Terminal 1 at Changi Airport Singapore.

Announcing  - Arrivals.............. in a large display right at the top of the escalator down to Immigration and Passport Control.  A great prominent display with plants well adapted to lower light levels.

That has been a noticeable improvement over the past year or so - plant selection that works, especially for inside feature walls, where light levels and composition being a big issue.

This feature wall is a great display.  Check it out at Changi - hard to miss!

There is no doubt that green walls do a great job of improving air quality indoors where it can often be a problem if circulation is uneven.  And look good as well.

Darwin Airport  - take note.  Can you do a great green wall as part of the terminal improvements??

World Record Height Green Wall - NEW in Singapore

Recently I noted a world record green wall in Canada.

Did not last long - a new record holder has emerged with a  new large project in Singapore.

The world's largest vertical garden? It's in Singapore

A 24-storey green belt at Tree House condominium in Bukit Timah clinched a Guinness World Record on Wednesday for its sheer size

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A 24-storey green belt at Tree House condominium in Bukit Timah clinched a Guinness World Record on Wednesday for its sheer size. -- PHOTO: CDL

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A 24-storey green belt at Tree House condominium in Bukit Timah clinched a Guinness World Record on Wednesday for its sheer size. -- PHOTO: CDL

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A 24-storey green belt at Tree House condominium in Bukit Timah clinched a Guinness World Record on Wednesday for its sheer size. -- PHOTO: CDL

The world's largest vertical garden is located right here in the Republic: A 24-storey green belt at Tree House condominium in Bukit Timah clinched a Guinness World Record on Wednesday for its sheer size.

Occupying a surface area of 2,289 sq m, the garden is expected to achieve more than $500,000 in energy and water savings a year. Its features include heat-reducing windows and motion sensors at staircases that activate lights automatically.

The vertical garden built by property firm City Developments Limited (CDL) can also reduce the estate's carbon footprint by filtering pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air. This reduces heat absorption and lowers the energy needed to cool indoor spaces.

Mr Kwek Leng Joo, CDL deputy chairman, said: "With the eco-inspired Tree House, CDL has not only created a place where residents are proud to call home, but more importantly, a green icon which places Singapore on the world map."

Reported on by Audrey Tan in the Straits Times June 12.

- See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/environment/story/the-worlds-largest-vertical-garden-its-right-here-singapore-2014061 #sthash.gJ6leQpa.dpuf

World's Tallest Green Wall - It Is Awesome!

tallest indoor living wall

Green Over Gray just completed the world's tallest living wall in the new Desjardins building in Quebec. The 65 metre (213 foot) living wall is named "The Currents" and was inspired by the nearby St. Lawrence River.

With more than 11,000 individual plants and 42 different plant species, this super tall vertical garden works hard to improve indoor air quality and create a unique environment for employees and visitors to the building.


   

“According to our research, this living wall is the tallest indoor vertical garden in the world,” said Patrick Poiraud, co-founder of Green Over Grey.

“The wall is fully hydroponic (i.e. soil-free) and incorporates plants that thrive in similar vertical environments found in nature, such as on tree branches and next to waterfalls. The end result is a visually pleasing piece that provides cleaner indoor air and improves both the acoustic and the value of the property.”

The vertical garden’s design is directly inspired by the St. Lawrence River, which can be seen from the building at its location in Lévis. Swirling currents of water are recreated in the layout of the wall with different shades of green, yellow, crimson, purple and cream along with different textures of the plants. Plant species include philodendrons, monsteras, fig trees, ginger, snake plants (Sansevieria trifasciata), elkhorn ferns (Platycerium bifurcatum), scheffleras, clusias and banana plants. The living wall provides a pleasant indoor environment and works to remove toxins and purify the air with plants like the peace lily, which is one of the most effective oxygen-producing plants.

Plants are grown in soil-free hydroponic panels made from 100 per cent recycled materials that eliminate 1.5 metric tons of recycled water bottles and plastic bags from landfills. The 15-story living wall is located on the north side of the new Desjardins building in a daylight-filled atrium. 

The eco-friendly building is expected to be completed later in September 2014 and was designed to achieve LEED Gold certification.

The tallest one I had personally seen was in Singapore - about 8 stories tall - but this is considerably higher.

I hope they have their maintenance ideas well sorted out, as that might be a bit tricky!! 

[ partially sourced from Outdoor Design Source May 2014]

Green Walls Grow in Singapore and Malaysia

Policy changes and enhancements are driving more green walls and roofs in SE Asia.

Becoming very common in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and now in many new developments.

A good example is the new Park Royal on Pickering Hotel in Singapore which is Singapore's first Platinum Green Mark hotel.  Quite an achievement...........and a lot of green walls help to reach this achievement.

In the foyer of Park Royal on Pickering

Green Roof and shading

 

 

Green Wall Systems

There is a lot of interest in building design as well as more general landscaping, to encourage the use of green wall and green roof systems as part of a sustainability drive in the industry.

While there is little use so far in Darwin, Singapore has been very active in integrating these approaches into building and the environment.  Yet, with hot weather here, the concept of green walls and roof systems does have a lot of merit.  It is well known that green vegetation can be a major factor in providing shade to building walls and roofs, thus reducing heat gain and improving sustainability of design - and appearances too

A new system from Elmich known as Versiwall does offer some interesting concepts including some very clever ideas for dividing and /or external walls that can actively reduce sunlight on building walls and reduce heat gain.

The system has a recyclable plastic frame with specially designed pots that lock onto the wall frame.
A new take on the idea of a wire mesh or similar wall .

The pots can be arranged to match the size of plants to give a dense or not so dense wall cover, at a reasonable cost, and have a specially designed ctch to eliminate the risk of being dislodged, for example, in storms.

Check out the system at www.elmich.com or see the photos below.  Pots are made of a very durable plastic and are modestly priced.

The system is very new to Australia, with the first designs being installed later in the month.
Watering is integrated into the system, and recycled or grey water use is possible.

 

 

Green Roof and Walls

The Elmich Effect -   The Largest Greenwall in the World!! .

 

Officially the World’s Largest Greenwall Project - Singapore ITE Headquarters & College Central                                                        Hats off, to our colleagues at Elmich Singapore, who have just completed the largest greenwall installation, in the world.  Standing at 35m tall and totaling 5,300 m2, Elmich VGM Green Wall modules transformed the campus walls, both internal and external, into facades of living green vegetation, in-line with the college’s Eco-Initiative to create an environment conducive to learning. The highly engineered Elmich VGM architectural living wall system uses UV-stabilised plastic modules and stainless steel support brackets and pilasters that enable easy mounting and dismounting of VGMs during installation and maintenance. Topped off with 2400m2 of Extensive Greenroof 2,400 sq m of roof space, over three campus blocks, was 'Greened' using the Elmich Extensive Greenroof system. VersiDrain 25P® drainage and water retention trays were placed directly over the waterproofing and overlaid with a geotextile and a lightweight engineered growing media. Pearl Grass was selected for its heat tolerance and low maintenance and an automated pop-up irrigation system was installed to ensure abundant growth, maximising the benefits of this greenroof.

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While this is actually part of advertising by Elmich, it does show the fantastic green wall and roof developed for this new building complex  in Singapore.

Even more interesting is the new type of grass used for the roof.

Pearl grass [ their term] is actually a dwarf variety of broad leaved carpet grass [ Axonopus compressus] , with broad leaved carpet grass common as a turf in tropical Australia.

Does it have a place in tropical Australia?  I would think it might.