Our Story so Far

The first idea for Vertical Meadow came back in 2012 whilst our founder Alistair Law was growing plants on his Parisian balcony. Reflecting on the living wall systems starting to appear in our towns and cities, Alistair developed an idea which sought to rethink how living walls were engineered and delivered. Fast forward a decade and our demonstrator walls are on display at our studio in NW5 and we are very excited to open our doors to the public as part of Open House 2023.

The design of our systems has been guided by a desire to utilise existing construction principles and grow biodiverse plant species from seed in situ; thereby removing the cost, carbon emissions and logistical challenges associated with growing plants in greenhouses and delivering them to a site. We believe this offers a truly sustainable and scalable solution for effective urban greening and combatting the growing biodiversity crisis.

We’re thrilled by the prospect of sharing our living walls with the public. Our hope is that by providing access to an innovative design solution to the biodiversity crisis, we can inspire greater public connection with nature and perhaps even new ideas for how we can introduce greater biodiversity in our urban spaces!

Biodiversity

Our living wall solutions are driven by a desire to bring biodiversity into our cities. Over the last decade, we’ve been fortunate to work with some of the country’s leading ecologists to deliver species-rich living walls that help restore nature in cities and tackle the growing biodiversity crisis. This has helped us refine the way we work with nature and minimise our environmental footprint. We believe these are important learnings that are relevant to share with the public.

Meadows and species-rich grasslands now cover less than 1% of the UK, with 97% lost in less than a century. In May 2019 the UK Government declared an Environment and Climate Change emergency, with the Construction Industry Council recognising the built environment as a major contributor to the breakdown of biodiversity.

Our two living wall solutions will be on display at our studio in NW5:
1) Our temporary Wrap; and
2) Our permanent aluminium Cladding

Both have been designed to use customisable, species-rich native wild grass and wildflower seed mixes that provide a haven for pollinators, insects and butterflies. Grown from seed on site, the resulting plants are hardy and long-lasting and we cannot wait to share these with the public.