A living wall is a great facade alternative. Facades in the NY area are typically brick, stucco, brownstone finish, and sometimes wood or vinyl. A living wall is not considered.
But with the installation of a living wall on the facade of the Eco Brooklyn Show House we hope to change that. We’d like to add living walls as a viable facade alternative.
Living wall facades have several benefits over your typical brick, stucco, wood and vinyl facades. Firstly, living wall facades help insulate the building. In the winter living walls help keep the building warmer and in the summer they help keep the building cooler.
The above photo is a rendering of a New York City block with living wall facades covering the front. How cool would that be!
Not only do they help keep the building cooler, they also help with the heat island effect. Living walls, because the plants evaporate moisture, help keep the entire surrounding area cooler too. The more living walls a block has, the cooler the block will be in the summer.
Another benefit is that living walls attract birds and butterflies. The birds eat bugs and nuisance mosquitoes, a big problem in NY.
Above is a photo of the Eco Brooklyn Living Wall facade. Hands down, the neighbors all agree that it is a better facade alternative to the traditional options
Possibly the biggest benefits of living wall facades are psychological. Like trees on a block, living wall facades make the neighborhood more pleasant to live in.
Most people would agree that lving wall facades are just more beautiful than your typical brick, stucco or god forbid, vinyl siding.