New Urban Gardening Sensation Wallflowerᵀᴹ Vertical Garden Vows to Green the Concrete Jungle

Photos by Jan Verboom / Rendering + video by Juju / Courtesy of Haldane Martin

New Urban Gardening Sensation Wallflowerᵀᴹ Vertical Garden Vows to Green the Concrete Jungle

Wallflowerᵀᴹ Vertical Garden, designed by Haldane Martin, is a modular planter system designed to enable city dwellers to grow veggies and other plants on vertical walls – greening the concrete jungle!

The seed for Wallflower was planted 4 years ago, when Haldane Martin came across the Seoul Commune 2026 project. Inspired by this architectural vision for high density, sustainable living, he is bringing nature and farming back into the urban environment.

For the actual design, Martin biomimicked the space efficient packing array of bees honeycomb to create nested niches to hold soil and plants. He also biomimicked the water and nutrient distribution network of plant leaf and branching patterns for the design of the irrigation network.

The modular system is made up of three different sized planters, creating a hexagonal, fractal pattern that climbs up vertical surfaces. Each of the planters is made from recycled, rotation molded, UV stable, High Density Polyethylene and are wall mounted with recycled stainless steel brackets. A drip irrigation system is mounted onto the brackets behind the planters, creating a branching network of irrigation pipes that runs up the wall. Feeder pipes enter the planters from behind, just below the soil surface and water the plants with water efficient, self-regulating, dripper valves. A liquid, organic, nutrient delivery system can also be integrated into the irrigation system. The planters have drainage holes positioned so that excess water draining from one planter drips into the planters below, minimizing water loss. A modular tripod trellis system enables climbing plants such as beans, tomatoes or creepers to spread out beyond the planters.

Each of the three sizes of planters has been specifically designed for the differing soil depth requirements of various vegetables. Large planters are for root vegetables, for example carrots. Medium planters are for fruits such as tomatoes. Small planters are for leaf vegetables like lettuce. Other plants such as creepers or succulents can also be grown in Wallflower.

To see Wallflowers climbing up buildings all over the world, the next step in the process is to tool up for large-scale production. This entails making three rotational moulds for the planters. Martin is hopeful that urban gardening supporters along with Kickstarter, the fund-raising venue for Wallflower, can help to make this project a reality and contribute towards a healthier, greener, urban environment and personal lifestyle.

You can help! Go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/607567783/wallflower-urban-garden and click Back This Project to donate.

About Haldane Martin

Haldane Martin is a contemporary furniture and product designer / maker based in Cape Town, South Africa. He qualified as an Industrial Designer in 1992. His designs have won numerous awards, the most recent being the Elle Decor, Designer Of The Year 2010, Real Simple SA – Green Innovation Award (Design) 2008, and the prestigious SABS DISA award for Zulu Mama 2007. The furniture designs have been exhibited in Madrid, London, Paris, New York, Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. They have also been featured extensively in both local press and international design publications. Haldane is also a regular guest speaker at design conferences and educational institutions. He also offers sought-after internship positions to promising young designers.
“As a contemporary industrial designer I strive to meet the needs of the whole human being by designing furniture and products that are simultaneously meaningful for the spirit, beautiful for the soul, and nurturing for our bodies and the earth.”

The following photos of Wallflowerᵀᴹ are from Design Indaba Expo (prototype launch) at Cape Town International Convention Centre, 25 – 27 February 2011. Photos by Jan Verboom. Rendering by Juju.