We recently completed installing one of our trademark exterior living walls up the façade of West London Volkswagen, Volkswagen’s showroom HQ in Brentford. The installation stretches 23m high and 10m wide. It took our team less than a week to install all 1840 modules, working from a scissor lift platform.
VW’s architect was looking for ways to boost the building up to a BREEAM sustainability rating of ‘Excellent’ and achieve an ‘A’ energy performance rating. How does a green wall help a building’s sustainability?
In quite a few ways:
Green walls improve air quality by filtering noxious gases, and capture airborne pollutants. They also help with stormwater runoff, reducing the load on the drainage system. They have excellent noise attenuation too, reducing sound from outside by as much as 40-50 decibels. They act as insulation too, which reduces the demand on air cooling systems and electrical load, reduce electromagnetic radiation penetration and even protect the building itself from the wearing effects of the weather.
Add to this an additional habitat for the local ecology and the much-needed aesthetic advantage over the Great West Road and the M4, and you can see just why VW thought we were ‘Well worth it’, to borrow their most recent slogan.
