Designers Propose Living Garden Billboards in NYC

garden spots billboard Image: Todo Design and Das Studio

Yep, the billboard is getter better and better. What was once a flat-faced urban fixture now becomes a tabula rasa for endless possibilities, as one proposal does by re-imagining dreary NYC billboards dressed with living greenery. Titled “Garden Spots,” the proposal has won the designers at TODO Design and Das Studio first place at the iDA Land & Sea Competition, where the backsides of these otherwise lifeless spaces would be seeded with gardens containing local plant varieties.

These air gardens would be designed with self-sustaining technologies in mind; with photovoltaic panels providing electricity for the automatic drip irrigation system, which takes water from the base of the billboard tower. With centralized monitoring of billboard clusters via wireless technology, less management is required. It's a great idea that not only would the living billboards offset the carbon emissions of cars passing by, but that these greener faces would also certainly be easier on the eyes too.

garden spots billboard irrigation system