One of the UK’s longest living walls at 170 meters in length can be found at the Westfield Shopping Centre in West London. Designed by EDAW (now AECOM), this 4.5 metere high north-facing wall lines the southern pedestrian approach to the shopping mall.

From the original EDAW press release,“Westfield London incorporates a modular living-wall system manufactured by Canadian firm ELT and planted by Aldingbourne Nurseries. The living wall is constructed from modular plastic panels. Each section is approximately 50cm high by 50cm wide by 8cm deep, is subdivided into 45 cells and can be stacked to the required height and width.”

ELT is Elevated Landscape Techonologies based out of Canada and the developers of the Easy Green System used in this wall. This system is essentially a tray system attached to the which have the plants growing in soil. Somewhat like turning nursery trains on their side. The plants are then watered from the top down via a hidden drip irrigation style system. The plant palette for the wall consists primarily of native woodland plants with ferns as the dominant fixture.

Some living walls like to recapture the water that is then dripping out from the bottom of the system. Others like to just go ahead and let it drip. This particular wall has done an interesting thing and designed a decorative water feature at the base which also combines to create a flowing seating wall. It’s a nice touch. However I don’t know for sure if the water from the wall is allowed to flow into the system or not but it looks as though they are kept separate with the wall falling a bit behind the water feature.

images via landscapeisqashu, hotspotting, landscapeisdeb