A 220 metre long ‘living wall’ has been unveiled at Two Snowhill – Birmingham’s latest office development.
The wall, which stands seven metres high and includes 604 sq m of plants, is believed to be the largest of its kind in Europe.
It has been unveiled to coincide with the official launch of Two Snowhill, which takes place this week.
Work to create the giant wall started early last year with the construction of the steel frame along the Metro viaduct wall next to Snowhill Station. This was followed by the installation of the panels containing the thousands of plants.
The plants were pre-grown in purpose built panels in a nursery in Holland and delivered to site ready to be attached to the made-to-measure framework.
As well as plants, the living wall incorporates decorative perforated aluminium panels, which have been designed to capture and play with artificial and natural daylight. Programmable uplighters bring the wall to life at night and create constantly changes patterns and the illusion of depth and movement.
Carly Kingswell, landscape architect at Hyland Edgar Driver, which installed the living wall, said: “Living walls have been growing in popularity over a number of years, although one the scale of Two Snowhill’s is rarely seen.
“The technology is relatively young, but this particular system is tried and tested, and once the plants achieve full coverage, the effect will be fantastic. Visitors to the building will see the wall grow and flourish over the summer.”
Richard Probert, commercial sales and letting manager (UK) for Ballymore, which is developing Two Snowhill with Hines, said the addition of the living wall enhances the public realm and provides a striking feature for the development.
He said: “Visitors to the Snowhill scheme and other users, particularly of the ground floor retail and leisure spaces, will be stunned by the living wall; it’s huge. The unique design and sheer size of it creates a fantastic feature for the development – enhancing the public realm, making it a pleasant and relaxing space for people to enjoy.”
Two Snowhill is the biggest office development to be built in the UK – outside London – since the start of the credit crunch.
The 310,000 sq ft, 14-storey building comprises 303,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation and 7,000 sq ft of ground floor retail space.
118,000 sq ft of office space remains available to let.
To mark the launch of Two Snowhill, Hines and Ballymore have commissioned a performance installation by Birmingham-based theatre company Stan’s Café.
The building will be open to the public for ten days, from Friday 12th – Sunday 21st April, when it will host a special 10th anniversary version of Stan’s Café’s award-winning ‘Of All The People In All The World’ exhibition.
The show is free to attend and will be held on the sixth floor of the building.