Nottingham Trent University, Design and Digital Arts Building

This living wall creates a colourful botanic backdrop to a roof terrace on Nottingham Trent University’s new Design and Digital Arts Building. It covers approximately 75 square metres and spans across two facades; West and South.

The new Arts building was concept designed by World renowned architect Hawkins Brown and built by Biotecture’s repeat client Bowmer + Kirkland. The new development is part of an ambitious plan to cement NTU’s position as one of the world’s leading art and design schools.

The green wall was created using Biotecture’s hydroponic BioPanel system. The system acts as a rainscreen cladding and is the only living wall system on the market to have undergone CWCT testing. BioPanel includes a waterproof backing board, geotextile drainage layer and modular BioPanels fixed in between aluminum rails.

Instead of soil BioPanel incorporates a resilient growing medium called Grodan which has been trusted by agricultural growers for over 50 years. It’s dimensionally stable, chemically inert and extremely water retentive making it a reliable choice to keep living walls thriving for decades to come.

The green walls include an integrated automatic irrigation system which is remotely monitored from our office daily to give piece of mind.

The living facades are west and south facing, so get optimal sunlight levels. This meant to were able to incorporate seasonal flowering plants to attract pollinators. We consulted with NTU’s in-house ecologist to maximise the benefits to insects.

The plants have been arranged organically and divided into two matrices to suit the west and south facing walls. The south elevation includes more flowering plants including Campanula, Erysium Bowles Mauve, Bergenia, and Heuchera

Concept Architect: Hawkins Brown
Delivery Architect: cpmg
Main contractor: Bowmer + Kirkland