“Eden” is a fitting name for a 12-storey sustainable office block built in New Salford, UK that has the largest living wall in all of Europe. The building’s 36,000 sq. ft. facade is completely covered in greenery with more than 350,000 plants and 32 species, ranging from strawberries to bluebells, making a home on its walls.
The building’s fully green facade is not the only thing that makes it environmentally friendly. According to Stuart Fraser, the project’s lead architect, the structure is net-zero, low on embodied carbon and energy efficient. Lowering carbon emissions was one of the main goals when this idea was conceived.
“We also want to include woody species to help absorb gases such as nitric oxide and to absorb carbon,” said Niall McEvoy, one of the project’s consultants. “It’s the building that all others should be modelled against, and the living wall is almost the cherry on the cake.”
With that many plants, upkeep is a concern. However, the building was designed in such a way to make maintaining the living walls easier. There’s an elevator system that workers can use to work on the exterior. In essence, it works the same way traditional window washers care for normal buildings. There’s also an innovative irrigation system that uses rainwater to water the plants.
“We are hoping this is a greenprint for the future of office buildings… We have really tried to create something that pushed the boundaries in terms of how sustainable construction can be,” said Ella Woodward, one of the project’s developers.
The companies that will call this office building home are expected to move in within the next few weeks. Despite the additional costs required to maintain the plants on a regular basis represents, they are actually optimistic that being tenants in the place could give them a leg up. Representatives from an accounting firm who are ready to move into the building mentioned that just the workplace itself was going to give them a leg up in the competitive labour market within their industry. They reasoned that young people are more concerned about sustainability. The opportunity to work in a place like “Eden” could help the recruiting process.
