\nAnd why everybody should have one in their home<\/p>\n
From living walls, to lush roof gardens and urban farming initiatives, the increased appetite for metropolitan nature is clear.
\nWhile Singapore\u2019s omnipresence at the top end of global sustainability rankings marks it out as a pioneer in the green building arena, one man who understands the importance of green \u2013 in its more literal sense \u2013 is Veera from Greenology.
\nNicknamed \u201cthe plant whisperer of Singapore\u201d by his botany students, Veera has seen how including plants within home design can drastically improve personal health and wellbeing, as well as reducing a buildings carbon footprint.
\nWe met up with him at BEX-Asia earlier this month, to discuss the greenification of our homes and cities.
\nHow did Greenology start?
\nI started Greenology about nine years ago. I\u2019ve done a lot of different things in the green industry, but I\u2019m a botanist by trade. I\u2019ve been around the world and helped to build the Singapore Zoo and the night safari. I also was involved in doing the greening for Changi airport.
\nDriven by passion, I left the civil service and started Greenology. Reacting to the challenges coming along, I decided to look at technologies and solutions to bring plants closer to people, and that\u2019s when I started developing the green wall system and all the other technologies that allow habitats to be created for people. Not only for people but other fauna: the bees, the birds and everything to co-exist, and I think that\u2019s the real intention and philosophy behind what we do.
\nMore: Singapore ranks second in the world for green buildings<\/p>\n
You mention the challenges \u2013 you mean more people moving to the city?
\nBasically, the urban environment is a very real issue. Everyone from the rural areas wants to come into the cities, but the cities are not really prepared for it. Even if you were to take in more people within the cities, how do you deal with the interactions and the difficulties of managing that space and infrastructure? For people to exist the easiest thing to do is to get rid of greenery\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and that\u2019s what people do: take away trees and replace them with buildings. It\u2019s only then that they try and find ways to put the trees back.\u00a0What people realise is that when you start putting up buildings so close together, they shade each other out, and lo and behold, plants require sun.
\n\u201cThe health and environmental reasons for doing this are completely mind-blowing\u201d
\nTell us more about the three components to your business: living art, living walls and vertical agriculture
\nGreen wall systems \u201cvertical greening\u201d is our main business, and it is done both indoors and outdoors. We try to bring that into outdoor spaces in the outdoors \u2013 the complete fa\u00e7ade of the building, or on a balcony. Or inside where it\u2019s in your home and in space that\u2019s very close to you.
\nThe other business is essentially about urban farming systems, which essentially allow you to grown your own produce, in the comfort of your home. So if it\u2019s in a balcony, you can grow some vegetables that can give you some self-sufficiency. Because the challenges in the urban environment are not only the greening, but also about food production, and food security as well.
\nDo you need a lot of equipment?
\n\u201cThe technology is fuss free, maintenance free, and everything is able to look after itself\u201d
\nWhen we developed these systems we bore in mind that we needed systems to be\u00a0fuss free and literally idiot proof, so you need the plants to literally look after themselves. The technology allows the plants to be watered and irrigated, the lights to come on at a certain time, so you can come\u00a0back home to enjoy the greenery rather than working on it.
\nOr you can come home\u00a0and have a fresh salad by just snipping a few leaves into a bowl. I think these are solutions that will evolve.
\nMore: It\u2019s official: Singapore, Seoul ranked Asia\u2019s most sustainable cities<\/p>\n
Are more people coming to you now saying \u2013 I want a green wall in my house?
\nYes \u2013 every day.
\nWhen I started the green walls, and providing urban green solutions, we were struggling and this struggle lasted about 2.5 years.
\nBut then it suddenly\u00a0took off. People began to realise that the technology was becoming more affordable, and that it makes sense in so many ways. The technology is fuss free, maintenance free, and everything is able to look after itself. The convenience is allowing people with urban lifestyles have more and more plant elements in their homes.
\nHow do the plants get the nourishment they need?
\nIt\u2019s all automated. So we\u2019ve got drip systems running at the top of each panel, and it drips in in very small
\nquantities, and the nutrients are dripping in from a small canister together with the water.
\nHow is that different to hydroponics?
\nHydroponics essentially is just water. It\u2019s soilless media and the\u00a0roots are submerged in water. You need a layer of water for hydroponics, whereas this is a panel system with the organic media and the plants growing in pockets. So there\u2019s very little water dripping through.
\n\u201cIf you have plants on the fa\u00e7ade of the wall, the temperature drops inside by 3-5 degrees.
\nSo in this instance there\u2019s very little wastage of water, water is a precious resource. The biggest challenge in vertical greening is how to get water up in a vertical plane, this is why we develop a particular project called a nanofiber, which is inserted into the panel, and holds water in the vertical plane.<\/p>\n
When people come to you and say \u201cI want a green wall in my house,\u201d how do you advise them?
\nWe will go to their home and assess the situation. Because every wall has a different orientation to the sun, and every wall has got a different environment. It might face east, west, north, south.
\nWe\u2019ll then ask the client what size they want the wall to be, we\u2019ll create a design and discuss with the client what\u2019s possible and what\u2019s not. We then\u00a0give them a budgetry figure, and from there, they decide whether they want to\u00a0proceed.
\nIf they\u2019re\u00a0still keen\u00a0then we go into more detailed design, for example, the client might want a particular plant colour for the wall. \u00a0When everything is approved, we pre-grow the plants in the nursery for about 6-8 weeks, then we go and install it.
\nMore: Tapei 101 earns title of the world\u2019s tallest green building<\/p>\n
Are there any projects that people have come to you with that have not been possible?
\nYes. We have. It\u2019s very strange, there are some people who come to us wanting to do a green wall. They want it because their neighbour has one \u2013 it becomes a status thing. So some people\u00a0really don\u2019t understand plants and don\u2019t understand the environment; they just want to do it for the sake of it.
\nSometimes I\u00a0make an assessment, and I have to say to them, look, if you\u2019re really not into it you shouldn\u2019t do it. This shouldn\u2019t be used as a fashion statement.
\nWhat are the health benefits of doing this?
\nI think both the health and environmental reasons for doing this are completely mind-blowing.
\nThe environmental reasons are essentially that if you have plants on the fa\u00e7ade of the wall, the temperature drops inside by 3-5 degrees,, which is really significant in Asia.
\nThe other reason is because photosynthesis produces oxygen, so you get fresh air from plants if you have them on the fa\u00e7ade of the wall or indoors.<\/p>\n
If you really look at the benefits plants can give to an individual at home, or even in hospital, then you realise that the psychological relief that it brings is phenomenal. That\u2019s the reason why people with stress should go to a park, having that greenery around them is so helpful.
\nSo having a big wall of greenery, being able to sit by it and just being close to nature gives you a lot of psychological relief.<\/p>\n
We all crave the peace and quiet around nature. Creating\u00a0that ambience and that habitat is what this is all about.
\nWe\u2019ve also worked with dementia patients, when they work with plants, we\u2019ve seen remarkable changes. We\u2019ve seen social improvements, cognitive improvements, psychological, physical \u2013 they tend to become completely different people when they\u2019re around plants. It\u2019s amazing. Horticulture therapy is a proven science now.
\nHospitals today recognise this, they\u00a0want greenery everywhere. If you go to some of the hospitals in Singapore they have wonderful gardens.
\nThis sense of calmness is what you get when you have plants all around you.
\nSo the environmental and psychological benefits all come together with it. Not necessarily in a big building but a small house as well.<\/p>\n