Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Molly de Aguiar, Program Associate

We’ve talked a lot about our three-story biowall on this blog and on our website – that it is a central aesthetic feature of our new office space, and how it embodies the connection between human health and the natural world.

It’s quite a privilege to walk past it each day and to hear the sound of the water trickling down the wall. We marvel at its beauty and its clever design, as it efficiently and naturally filters the air we breathe.

In fact, some visitors come to our office just to see the wall and learn how it works.

Lately, I’ve seen some other interesting examples of bringing nature indoors.

If you are interested in your own vertical garden, for example, ELT Living Walls sells kits that you can install in your home. How about one for your home office or kitchen, like these?

Check out ELT’s terrific photo gallery here.

Greenworks, based in Stockholm, recently exhibited their concept for a self-watering, mobile plantwall at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. How would you like one of these for your home?

Also a prototype, this bathmat designed by Nguyen La Chanh of Switzerland is made of a variety of mosses planted in a type of foam called plastazote. The mosses get watered as you towel off from your shower or bath.

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Hey! Our Biowall was featured in Sunday’s Star-Ledger, and online with this accompanying video.

You’ve seen some early photos from the installation of our three-story biowall. Now we have some exciting new photos to share (you can click on the images for a closer look).

The folks from Furbish Company will have to monitor the plants and the watering system closely in order to make sure the wall is thriving; some plants will inevitably fail and need to be replaced.

The first two are views from our reception area:

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Here are some photos of our biowall being installed by the folks of Furbish Company. There are three layers of porous material to which the plants are attached: one layer of abrasive mat, one layer of coconut fiber mat, and another layer of abrasive mat. The abrasive mat, incidentally, is not unlike the typical abrasive material you find on a dish sponge. The plants’ roots grow downward between the layers.

The plants are watered through a pump system; water cascades down through the plants from the top of the wall, collecting in a trough at the bottom and is then pumped back to the top of the wall.

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