Young plants for green walls

An outdoor green wall lets you dress up an unattractive wall, insulate it against heat and noise, and show off a façade.

WHAT ARE THE 5 MAIN BENEFITS OF A GREEN WALL?

1. Thermal comfort : in summer, planting brings façade temperatures down by 15°C and improves summer comfort inside the building. In winter, the growing medium and the plants' evergreen foliage — combined with the layer of air between the wall and the planting — insulate walls from cold and wind. The structure of the green wall protects you from noise and temperature swings. Because it is separated from the supporting wall, the air layer helps regulate heat and cold. Sound is also dampened: it no longer bounces off the surface but is absorbed by the green wall.
2. Acoustic comfort : planting walls mainly serves to dampen surrounding noise (insulation of around 5 dB).
3. Cleaning the ambient air : outdoors, planting walls has proportionally more impact on the environment than planting a roof, since the wall area is always greater than the roof area. A green wall helps reduce the amount of dust in the air and lowers carbon dioxide levels.
4. Better living and working environment : a great deal of academic research has shown that plants can improve health in places where people live, study and work, can improve the general sense of well-being and can also reduce stress levels and absenteeism.
5. Attractive buildings and protection against damage (graffiti and the like)

Planting and the HQE approach

Planting fits naturally into the HQE concept (High Environmental Quality), and its growth shows a growing awareness in France of the need for construction that is more respectful of the environment and of the planet's resources.

Planting the building envelope in fact meets 10 of the 14 targets of the HQE approach:

Green wall plants: positioning and choice

Four principles to follow when building your green wall:
Use canopy plants at the top of the wall so that the light conditions are close to their natural habitat. Choose climbers for the middle of the wall, where they will have all the room they need to develop. Finally, woodland plants will be happy at the bottom of the wall, since they do not need much light. The same logic applies to your plants' water needs: thirsty plants should go at the top of the wall.