I've seen a couple of renderings of projects with grass walls, but have never actually seen one built. A couple of weeks ago there was a thread about a grass couch. Does anyone know of any projects that have been built with grass walls, and does anyone know if these projects have been successful? What species of grass could grown on a vertical surface without much sunlight?
Also, I think there is an athletic hall in southeastern Paris across the river from Perrault's national library that makes use of very steep if not vertical grass walls, but the project name and architect escape me.
I think it was Klein Dytham who designed a grass construction barrier just down the street from the Tokyo Prada store. I have some photographs including some details that show how they did it, but I'm a little busy at work right now. I'll try to post the photographs later. Unfortunately much (but not all) of the plant material is dead. If the Japanese can't make a grass wall grow who can?
Also, the moss wall at the Prada store isn't growing so well either.
I saw the project in Paris, the grass was at about a 70 degree incline, and a little robotic mower came out every now and then to maintain it. I'm thinking about an application that would require about 200 square feet on a western facade of an infill house, since there is practically no lawn for the house. Did the Tokyo systems fail for lack of maintenance or just because the whole idea isn't tenable? As much money as Americans spend tending their lawns, I'm not looking for a "no maintenance" solution. Those pictures of the Grass Houses/staircases chicago78 posted are pretty evocative, maybe I'll do more research up that alley.
these are usually called "living walls". i can think of only one, but i can't recall which species survived, and haven't noticed how well they still cover the media.
they probably use subsurface irrigation such as agrifim dripline
from a practical POV, unless you have an existing porous rock face, i'd suggest vines on trellis :-)
e909,
have been to laban, its real grass, very sculptured, west side/main entrance of building. the shot you references is the side of the laban adjacent to the thames at low tide [the thames tidal movement is about 15' high to low tide, twice daily]
As long as you can prevent it from destroying the building:
"It was also observed that vetiver can grow vertically on slope steeper than 150%. It is faster growing and imparts more reinforcement making it a better candidate for slope stabilisation than other plants. Another less well known characteristics which sets it apart from other tree roots is it power of penetration. Its 'innate' strength and vigour enable it to penetrate through difficult soil, hard pan or rocky layers with weak spots. It has even managed to punch through asphaltic concrete pavement. It has been observed that vetiver roots basically behave like living soil nails or dowels of 2Â3m depth commonly use in a 'hard approach' to slope stabilisation work."
I didn't dig for details about the South African species, but it looks like Vetifer has been used in mostly tropical locations. And that page says it's shade intolerant. Otherwise Vetifer looks good. The clumping rooting is good. In a wall? It is a wall; it looks like vetifers are 4 ft or taller. :-)
V. zizanioides
V. nigritana South African species
V. nemoralis
Grass Walls
I've seen a couple of renderings of projects with grass walls, but have never actually seen one built. A couple of weeks ago there was a thread about a grass couch. Does anyone know of any projects that have been built with grass walls, and does anyone know if these projects have been successful? What species of grass could grown on a vertical surface without much sunlight?
i'm not sure if this is grass or moss:
http://www.archinect.com/gallery//displayimage.php?pos=-34
Also, I think there is an athletic hall in southeastern Paris across the river from Perrault's national library that makes use of very steep if not vertical grass walls, but the project name and architect escape me.
I think it was Klein Dytham who designed a grass construction barrier just down the street from the Tokyo Prada store. I have some photographs including some details that show how they did it, but I'm a little busy at work right now. I'll try to post the photographs later. Unfortunately much (but not all) of the plant material is dead. If the Japanese can't make a grass wall grow who can?
Also, the moss wall at the Prada store isn't growing so well either.
I saw the project in Paris, the grass was at about a 70 degree incline, and a little robotic mower came out every now and then to maintain it. I'm thinking about an application that would require about 200 square feet on a western facade of an infill house, since there is practically no lawn for the house. Did the Tokyo systems fail for lack of maintenance or just because the whole idea isn't tenable? As much money as Americans spend tending their lawns, I'm not looking for a "no maintenance" solution. Those pictures of the Grass Houses/staircases chicago78 posted are pretty evocative, maybe I'll do more research up that alley.
laban center by H+dM london ... very vertical grass ... nice...picture doesnt do it justice though....
is truly grass?
this pic shows other side of laban centre. such a contrast between pastelly colors vs muck below :-)
http://www.londonstills.com/ml0211.html
these are usually called "living walls". i can think of only one, but i can't recall which species survived, and haven't noticed how well they still cover the media.
they probably use subsurface irrigation such as agrifim dripline
from a practical POV, unless you have an existing porous rock face, i'd suggest vines on trellis :-)
hi maintenance
e909,
have been to laban, its real grass, very sculptured, west side/main entrance of building. the shot you references is the side of the laban adjacent to the thames at low tide [the thames tidal movement is about 15' high to low tide, twice daily]
Species candidate:
http://www.inpeco.pt/eng/environment/vetiver/vetiver.html
As long as you can prevent it from destroying the building:
"It was also observed that vetiver can grow vertically on slope steeper than 150%. It is faster growing and imparts more reinforcement making it a better candidate for slope stabilisation than other plants. Another less well known characteristics which sets it apart from other tree roots is it power of penetration. Its 'innate' strength and vigour enable it to penetrate through difficult soil, hard pan or rocky layers with weak spots. It has even managed to punch through asphaltic concrete pavement. It has been observed that vetiver roots basically behave like living soil nails or dowels of 2Â3m depth commonly use in a 'hard approach' to slope stabilisation work."
I didn't dig for details about the South African species, but it looks like Vetifer has been used in mostly tropical locations. And that page says it's shade intolerant. Otherwise Vetifer looks good. The clumping rooting is good. In a wall? It is a wall; it looks like vetifers are 4 ft or taller. :-)
V. zizanioides
V. nigritana South African species
V. nemoralis
"...naturalized in Louisiana and Puerto Rico.."
this zoysia http://images.google.com/images?q=%22Zoysia+tenuifolia%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
looks good in socal, as mentioned in
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/turf/publications/zoysia.html
I don't think it'll take much shade.
I wonder if the laban grass browns in the winter.
I asked the grass what it wanted, and it told me it wanted to be in the ground.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.