T: Is for sustainable living

In yesterday's column I talked about a polyester/ petrol wall and promised to enlighten you on what I encountered. When you enter the sanctum of Marithe + Francois Girbaud one of the first things you see is a wall of living plants. Not only is it beautiful but it gives fresh oxygen to all who are in proximity. When talking to Francois he enlightened me that he commissioned it from Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. The picture above is the Museum whose wall is completely made with plants and polyester. It is self sustaining while adding what we have taken away from our environment. Since global warming is an issue of great consequence, having sustainable gardens on walls offers a remedy. With our rainforest's disappearing this is a solution to the green house effect. The picture to your left is from the elevator in Bangkok’s Emporium Shopping Center. Like Jack in the Bean Stalk the available space is life reaching. It is tiring and monotonous to live in an urban jungle. How many of us are able to take a break from the concretes that surrounds us? With our landscape disappearing for the commerce of America, here is an answer. Green Exchange, a shopping center opening in Chicago, in 2008 will be the first environment-friendly shopping center in the U.S. and hence a socially conscious business. The building will be 250,000-square-feet and hold about 100 vendors all of whom must be green. The designer of most of these walls is Patrick Blanc. Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Garden System, known as Le Mur Vegetal in French, allows both plants and buildings to live in harmony with one another. Blanc’s Vertical Garden System can be implemented anywhere: indoors or out and in any climatic environment. This three-part system consists of a PVC layer, felt, and metal frame, providing a soil-free self-supporting system light enough to be hung on the wall, and even suspended in the air. The Vertical Garden can be an indoor as well as outdoor system, with the help of artificial lighting. I am grateful that Francois Girbaud is conscious and for bringing this remarkable invention to NY. I question the architectures and designers of buildings everywhere "Why is this not a must in every building being renovated and more importantly built"? Shouldn't this definitely be added to the plans for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center? How amazing it would be to add sustainable life in a space where life was taken and to make it a F.A.C.T. to give back what was lost.