Melcombe Primary School Greening, Hammersmith

Melcombe Primary school in Hammersmith received a grant from Hammersmith and Fulham council to install some living green wall and ivy screening at the school to improve the air quality in the playground and pavement outside the school for students walking to school and parents waiting to collect children. The school commissioned Biotecture to help with the school greening.

The first area they wanted to focus on was an area of existing brick wall in the play area. This was an ideal location for a living wall because the living wall panels could be fixed back to the existing wall. A large number of plants could be installed without taking up a lot of floor space which was important because the school wanted to maximise the available outdoor play area. A living wall in this location could also be used as an educational tool to teach students about plant life cycles, photosynthesis, horticulture and ecosystems. The plants in this living wall will remove up to 60% of particulate matter from the air that comes from traffic fumes from the busy main road that runs along side the school.

The second place the school were keen to improve was the existing school boundary. There was an existing low wall with a mesh fence mounted to the top to act as a security fence but it didn’t offer any privacy screening and the air quality in this area was particularly poor because there was no solid barrier between the school and the road. Biotecture installed ivy screens planted in toughs at the base of the existing wall because the ground surface was tarmac and there was no way to plant the screens into the ground. The pre-grown ivy screens were tied back to the existing mesh fence to ensure they were secure. They now obscure the view into the playground from the road and pavement outside the school. Ivy screens have also been shown to remove pollutants from the air.

Particulate matter equal or less than 10 micrometers (PM₁₀) can get into the lungs potentially causing serious health problems.

To see other examples of living walls that Biotecture have installed at schools, colleges and universities you can visit our portfolio.