The Morristown Building in New Jersey, headquarters for the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has installed a 3-story vegetated wall, or “bio-wall” as they are calling it. With 38 ft in height and 14 ft wide, the system was built to assist with internal air filtration in addition to it’s luscious looks. The plants have been inserted into pouches slit into the air and water permeable media without the use of soil. The built system is similar to the construction of Patrick Blanc-designed living walls. The plants are watered by water slowly cascading through the system from the top to the bottom where it is caught in a trough and then pumped back up to the top.

images via Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

The wall doesn’t just rely on the tropical plants and hydroponics system to passively pull toxins out of the air. The vegetated system has been constructed in conjunction with the HVAC system that sits behind the wall such that the air can be pulled directly through the wall media, allowing the roots to actively filter the VOC’s and carbon dioxide. Since the system takes advantage of recycled air, there is no need to re-cool or re-heat the air as it passes through the system. The air is returned to rooms through the raised floor duct system.

This experimental ventilation and heating system based on natural systems is also part of the Dodge Foundation’s support of biophilia research. A video below explains more about the bio-wall…