Green "living walls" come indoors - including at NRDC

My favorite feature of NRDC’s new Washington office is the “living wall” that faces the common space where our kitchen is (and stands adjacent to the exit to what will eventually be our terrace, overlooking 15th Street).  You can see it, just above, along with my pensive and photogenic colleague Marissa.

Here’s another view.  I’ve written about exterior living walls before, including a post about this one in London.  They are becoming less rare, which is exciting, but even more exciting is that green architects are starting to incorporate them into interior spaces, including NRDC’s own.

This is terrific because of biophilia, our basic human need to connect with nature.  My former colleague Rachel Sohmer explained here, in a guest post three years ago:

“Human beings seem to have an intrinsic emotional need to connect with nature.  E. O. Wilson and his colleagues call it ‘biophilia,’ and I love anything Dr. Wilson loves, which I guess makes me a biophilia-philiac? Anyway, researchers have shown that even just a view of greenery from your window can give you a psychological and physical boost.”

The photos just above are from the trendy clothing store Replay in Barcelona.  Tafline Laylin writes in Inhabitat that the firm Vertical Garden Design suggested that Replay incorporate both a storefront and courtyard green wall for the store.  The two-story storefront wall is planted with begonias and ferns, “while the courtyard wall - which sees a lot of sun on top and is shaded at the bottom - has hardier Mediterranean species.”  The results look gorgeous.  For more great images and context, see Laylin’s full article.

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