Southampton Row Office Building Living Façade

Biotecture worked closely with Panatura properties and David Morley Architects to compile and submit the planning application documents for this office building refurbishment which includes a large area of living wall overlooking Southampton Row. A detailed plan for the design, installation, long term landscape management and maintenance were drawn up and submitted to the local authority. If you are interested to learn more about how Biotecture can help you with your living wall planning application you can visit our consultative design page.

The Living façade of Synergy House was designed with a view to soften the building frontage and give a fresh display to the general benefit of the whole area. The plants were chosen to mitigate air quality and be of ecological value to pollinating insects. Flowering species like Pachysandra terminalis and Vinca ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ offer shelter and a food source to pollinating insects. It was also important to be able to maintain a manicured appearance so compact species were favoured.

When choosing the plants to use Biotecture considered the site conditions. The building is West facing so receives good light levels throughout the year, and is sheltered by the surrounding buildings. Particularly at the top of the wall which receives the most light, sun tolerant, evergreen plants were chosen.

The Living Wall was fixed back to the existing building structure via a steel support frame. So as to minimise disruption to the restaurant on the ground floor the living wall was installed from a cradle and ongoing maintenance is performed with abseil access from a bespoke roof top abseil rig.