Somebody introduced me to the green wall technology and I was very attracted to the idea. I'm now thinking of putting a green cover on a small commercial building my family owns in Davao. When I shared this idea to my parents they couldn't understand what I wanted to achieve. They thought everything was weird. Oh well, I'll have to educate them very slowly on this aspect. It's hard to teach old dogs new tricks.
The article below came from TreeHugger. I just want to share them with everyone. Happy reading! =)
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11 Buildings Wrapped in Gorgeous Green and Living Walls

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 09.24.08

Design & Architecture

Flower Tower by Edouard François
Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.” It turns out that his suggestion is also a good idea for creating handsome buildings. And who wants to hide an investment in green away on the roof when you can hang it out for everyone to see?
Vertical gardens reduce cooling loads in summer by shading buildings; this “blanket effect” also cuts heating loads in winter, with the green layer acting as extra insulation. As the plants grow, they trap carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, and soak up such pollutants as lead and cadmium. Green walls absorb noise; help reduce the heat island effect, keeping cities cooler; and provide a habitat or insects and spiders, which in turn feed birds and bats. And, as Wright noted, these interventions can hide a lot of ugly buildings. (Read article in Azure on Green Walls)


Green Façades by Edouard François
Randy Sharp of Vancouver's Sharp and Diamond describes two kinds of green walls: green facades, where a trellis structure is attached to the ground, and living walls, where the wall becomes the growing medium.
Edouard François is the master of the green façade, saying "'Man can live solely within architecture. He needs a complex building which must be decorated. Only in this way can he be happy.' Indeed, in François' view, working with nature offers a welcome complexity: 'Watch a tree. It has a thousand branches, it moves, grows, changes colour!' Green facades are much simpler as they are planted in the ground and do not need elaborate watering systems.
More on Living Green Facades from Edouard François

Edouard François is also working on Eden Bio, featuring 100 terraced units set within dense organic gardens, with stairways enclosed in greenery. ::Eden Bio by Edouard François

Sharp and Diamond's Vancouver Aquarium
Randy Sharp of Sharp & Diamond, designed the Vancouver Aquarium’s 50-square-metre green wall of polypropylene modules filled with wildflowers, ferns and ground covers. It has a modular grid of wall panels, a soil or felt growing medium, and irrigation and nutrient-delivery system and a support structure; these are the virtually universal features of a living wall. That isn't a lot to grow on, but Sharp notes that there are many native plants that cling to rocks and shallow soils and survive harsh winters. The trick is to blow all of the water out of the system before it freezes, and the plants go dormant. More on Randy Sharp's Award-winning Vancouver Aquarium wall: 2008 Award-Winning Green Roofs and Walls

Patrick Blanc and Le Mur Végétal
But the reigning king of the living wall is Patrick Blanc. He invented a version that he calls Le Mur Végétal, or Plant Wall, a dense sheet of vegetation that can grow against any surface, or even in midair. It works by doing away entirely with dirt, instead growing plants hydroponically in felt pockets attached to a rigid plastic backing. His most famous is at the Quai Branley Museum; Read more at A Really Green Building: Quai Branley Office Wing

Blanc also built a big wall at Madrid's newly opened CaixaForum museum. It is 24 metres high and takes up one wall of the square in front of the building. It has 15,000 plants of 250 different species and has become an instant drawing card to the area. Read more at Madrid Gets a Vertical Garden Too

He is even working on a boat design with Dutch architect Anne Hotrop. "The effect of the plants will be double. First, they will make the houses look like green hills floating on the water. This underscores the idea of the landscape approach. Second, the plants produce oxygen, compensating for the CO2 produced when the houses are manufactured." More on Floating Homes Made From Coffee Cups with Green Walls

Ann Demeulemeester's Store in Seoul by Mass Studies
Designed by Korean-based architecture firm Mass Studies, this four-level structure is a grassy oasis of nature in an otherwise gray and dense city. The perennials (clover, says one source) are planted into something Mass Studies bills a "geo-textile." According to Pavingexpert.com, these are "woven, non-woven or knitted, permeable sheets, usually, but not exclusively, non-biodegradable." More at Undulating Living Facade at Seoul Shop

Oulu by Evangeline Dennie
Named for the cultural epicenter of northern Finland, Oulu adds a shock of green to Williamsburg's bricks and asphalt. Unlike the other bars in the torrent that's hit the neighborhood, Oulu features a living facade and a thoroughly green design. More at Interview: Oulu's Designer, Evangeline Dennie

Topiade by Gas Design Group for Louis Vuitton
Gas Design Group, made up of Gregory Polleta and Sung Yang, with Clino Castelli, have designed Topiade, an "overlay facade," for existing Louis Vuitton stores.
It appears to be a new kind of intermixing of living walls with topiary. This is wonderful because everything Louis Vuitton does gets knocked off instantly. Soon all of Canal Street in New York, Spadina Avenue in Toronto, countless cheap shopping streets around the world will sport green living facades. More at Topiade by Gas Design Group for Louis Vuitton

Sao Paulo Office Building With Green Walls by Triptyque
Triptyque has built an office building in Sao Paulo that proudly wears its services on the exterior with a very industrial aesthetic, but is also full of planted "pores", complete with a misting system. They write:
"Like a living body, the building breathes, sweats and modifies itself, transcending its inertia. The walls are thick and covered externally by a vegetal layer that works like the skin of the structure. This dense wall is made of an organic concrete that has pores, where several plant species grow, giving the facades a unique look." More at Sao Paulo Office Building With Green Walls by Triptyque

Parabienta Green Wall from Shimizu
Shimizu, one of Japan's great construction dynasties with Minoru Industries, has developed a rather interesting one that looks good and seems relatively affordable at 80,000 yen per square metre, about 80 bucks per square foot. This "wall surface afforestation system" (parabienta) is light, can be designed in different patterns and grids, and cools the building significantly. More at Parabienta Green Wall from Shimizu

Living walls clean the air, humidify and provide oxygen. ELT, noted before for their exterior living walls and roofs, has introduced pre-packaged sets of systems so that you can grow your own. ELT Indoor Living Wall Kits

TreeHugger just can’t get enough of verdant architecture, whether it’s green roofs from Chicago to China, or living walls. However while we’ve been concentrating on greening the exterior surfaces of buildings, the German company Indoor Landscaping have taken their grass inside. They describe their work as ‘a connection between man, enclosed spaces and open nature... Nature should become tangible for people even within buildings, our plants change with the seasons, they age within the architecture enhanced in character and charm. More at Indoor Landscaping – Growing Green Inside

Grass Your Wall, by Ustatic
How about a green air-purifying grass wall in your apartment? Believe it or not, it’s possible without having a mess thank to these grass panels from Argentinean company Ustatic. The “Wall Grass” is a system of grass rectangular panels, which function with a structural substrate, a humidity retainer substrate with small conducts that warrantee the homogeneous distribution of water in the entire surface, and a basement formed by the grass’ roots, which add support. More at Grass Your Wall, by Ustatic