Balfour Beatty Living Green Hoarding, Canary Wharf

Balfour Beatty are working on a project to sure up the river bank in Canary Wharf where they have a temporary site compound set up in a shared green space. The Eastern boundary of the site compound faces an adjacent residential building with an access path that runs along the side of the site.

In order to provide a greener outlook and to help screen the site from overlooking residential properties Balfour Beatty commissioned Biotecture to install a temporary Living green hoarding that will be in place for the remaining 12 months of the works.

The PlantBox by Biotecture living wall panels are secured back to the existing 18mm ply hoarding via simple timber cladding rails. The green wall panels contain 540 live plants which are irrigated from the site compound with a fully automated remotely sensed irrigation system. This allows Biotecture to monitor and make adjustments to the irrigation system from our offices in West Sussex. This is part of a full maintenance contract that we have for this living hoarding that will cover care of the plants and the irrigation plant equipment.

The Living hoarding is on the East facing aspect so when choosing plants it was important to select species that would be comfortable with a mix of sun and shade conditions. An organic planting pattern was designed for this wall including subtle pink and purple highlights that will be at their most vibrant in spring and summer. Care was taken to exclude fruit producing plant varieties and thorny species due to the proximity to the public walkway.

In addition to a nicer visual appearance for the hoarding the living wall helps to increase Biodiversity by introducing a range of new plants and attracting pollinating insects. The plants also absorb dangerous gasses and trap harmful particulate matter that is present in the air caused by traffic fumes.

When the time comes to take down the site compound on completion of works there is potential to re-site the living hoarding to another site location and reuse it for another hoarding or move it to another location.

To see another example of a Living planted hoarding that Biotecture installed at the Nova Project in Victoria, London you can visit our portfolio page.