Parabienta Green Wall from Shimizu
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 10. 5.06
We won't repeat our Frank Lloyd Wright joke about planting vines that we used on the ELT Green Wall post,because we really like this new green wall system. Shimizu, one of Japan's great construction dynasties with Minoru Industries, has developed a rather interesting one that looks good and seems relatively affordable at 80,000 yen per square metre, about 80 bucks per square foot. This "wall surface afforestation system" (parabienta) is light, can be designed in different patterns and grids, and cools the building significantly. Considering how boring so many Japanese buildings are, we look forward to this being used everywhere and being introduced here. Read the Google translation from ::Shimizu Corporation
Unit type wall surface afforestation system “[parabienta]” system outline figure
From Japan for Sustainability:
Shimizu Corp., a major Japanese construction company, and Minoru Industrial Co., an agricultural machinery manufacturer, co-developed and are marketing "Parabienta," a light-weight and low-cost wall greening system. The Parabienta wall greening system combines panel-type planting units to form a wall. Different combinations of panel unit patterns and the selection of various plants allow flexibility in wall design.
The culture soil that forms the base of the planting unit is a unique compound that forms a solid but lightweight mass when heated, and comes in the shape of 5-centimeter thick sponge-like sheet of polyester-blended soil that has been heated with steam and molded. It has excellent water retention and drainage properties, and various kinds of plants can grow on this lightweight, shallow planting base. This culture base is the key to making this the world's most lightweight and inexpensive unit-type wall greening system.
The two companies started marketing this system to office buildings, schools and commercial facilities in August 2006. The average construction price is 80,000 yen (about U.S.$696) per square meter, including installation and irrigation system charges. They aim for sales of 100 million yen (about U.S.$870,000) during this fiscal year, and annual sales of 500 million yen (about U.S.$4.3million) in three year's time.
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When in doubt, let Google do the work for you. It's actually about $63.15/sqft.
Wow- it is about time for buildings to merge with plant life forms, so many reasons..
FANTASTIC
that much per square foot as relatively affordable? thats between half and a third of the average cost of a building per square foot...
LA: this is why the cost per square foot for buildings is such a silly measurement and completely irrelevant. you have to divide the cost per floor for the entire green system by the floor area to figure out the cost per square foot of floor area. A lot of claddings and windows cost this much. For example, if you have a 100 x 100 square building that is 10,000 sf per floor. if half of the south face is covered with this that is roughly 500 square feet of parabienta or 4,000 bucks. divide that by the floor area and you just increased the cost per square foot of your building by exactly 25 cents per square foot. That, by any standard, is cheap.
LA:
When I first read your article I though ´´Great, this is just what I need. Now maybe I don´t have to build a comparable wooden one for my east and west walls. I hope they sell them in Europe.´ Until I saw the equivalent price in dollars. While I agree with your statements about the calculations, this is still a little bit expensive. It is still much cheaper for me to make something comparable out of wood considering my small home size. Having said that, I would probably think it cheap for an office building - for much the same reasons you mentiond in your calculations.
There is a modular vertical gardening system being developed in the US: the Habitile™ by Aurora Mahassine. Focused on ecological potential along with water filtration potentials, the Habitile™ is designed to support local pollinators and songbirds. Rather than using monocultures of tropical plants the Habitile™ incorporates soil and native plants onto vertical architectural surfaces.
what do you do with the green wall in the winter's cold weather? Is this or other systems easy to take down without high costs and be able to be brought inside to insert on an interior wall?
If anyone can help me i am creating a seat bench. I was thinking that i can use this idea for a smaller scale bench seat with pleasant smelling, durable plants that can be used in southern california. If anyone can write me back with ideas or what to use and how to maybe create this I would be grateful for the help thank you.