Tucked away in an alley near Avenida Cinco de Mayo and Calle Palma within the historic district of Mexico City, a large and abundantly planted living wall is thriving. And even more than a lush vertical greening system, this wall seems to be a piece of art as well. Woven in amongst the multi-colored vegetated stripes appears to be a dragon. This wall is downright fun.

The plants on the wall seem to be thriving in Mexico City’s climate and have been planted in some sort of unidentified container system that is attached in some way to the side of the existing building with what I can only guess are a few layers between the plants and the actual building face. Why this particular building was chosen, I don’t know but according to Erika Richmond, a designer from Vancouver, B.C. who happened upon the wall on accident while visiting the historic district, said that the shop owners told her that it was built by the municipal government. Designer and installation date unknown. Having been all over the historic district several times myself, the last time in the fall of 2007, I know I would’ve found it if it were there. That means I am going to make a guess that it was installed sometime in the last two years.

Given the information of being built by the municipal government, that leads me to think that this is part of Mexico City’s Plan Verde. Plan Verde is the municipal governments plan to green the city as a way to not only attack the serious air quality issues within the valley and the massive flooding during the rainy season but to also raise the quality of living for the people through enhanced public transportation and bike pathways. Perhaps this wall is a test wall by the government as part of Plan Verde, which might be why it’s hidden down an alley instead of out in a more open viewing area with informational signage to educate the public. I’ve been following along with Plan Verde prior to discovering this wall and will write more on that in a future post.

The wall maintains a hidden drip irrigation system that is then caught in a gutter at the bottom. This is rather important since people walk underneath the wall to enter and leave the shops that are open for business beneath the living wall. No business wants their customers to be dripped on. But it’s got to be pretty cool to step into a little place under the green wall to grab some lunch. I wonder how many other green walls are out there, hidden away where hardly anyone sees them or knows that they exist?

images via mfree, rhys, erika richmond, sas17, buildgreenman