with vertical gardens in the muse-
um’s administration offices.
He has also created the tallest gar-
den in the world – at One Central Park
in Sydney, where vegetation reaches
116 metres into the sky. These hang-
ing vertical gardens are planted with
35,000 green wall plants from 350 dif-
ferent species, the 23 green walls cov-
ering a total of 1200 square metres.
His wall at the Shin-Yamaguchi
station in Japan was planted with
100 different species of native plants
collected on expeditions in 2012
and 2013; at 103 metres, his rain-
forest Chandelier at EmQuartier in
Bangkok is the longest free-standing
structure to be covered by plants;
and with around 200 different spe-
cies of climbing plants, the installa-
tion at Le Nouvel in Kuala Lumpur
features the highest vine biodiversity
on a high-rise building. As an artist,
all of Blanc’s works are copyrighted,
unique and never replicated.
Maintenance of his walls is
minimal; with careful plant se-
lection, green walls do not need
to be trimmed, and the density of
the planting prevents weeds from
germinating.AwallthatBlanc
designed for theCartierFoundation
for ContemporaryArtinParisin 1998
has never beenpruned.AWARD WINNING
Blanc has wonmanyaccolades,in-
cluding a botanyawardfromthe
French AcademyofSciences,a top
50 Best InventionoftheYearfrom
Time magazine,andanHonorary
Fellowship fromtheRoyalInstitute
of British Architects.
His international profile has
brought the ideaofverticalplanting
to a wider audience,butalifetime
dedicated tothe acquisition of
knowledge andperfectinghisart
means that hisisoftencopiedbut
never bettered.Childhood Wisdom
One morning while I was looking out the living-roomwindow
at some storm clouds, my four year old came and stoodbesideme.
He gazed out silently for a while, then finallysaid,
“One thing’s for sure, Dad. We’re going to have weathertoday!”
daniel dunneThis is an edited
extract from The
Secrets of Great
Botanists (and
What They Teach Us
About Gardening)
by Matthew Biggs,
published by Exisle.
Available from all
good bookstores.33
Left Field Genius