St Mary’s Student Accommodation

Project Background

To be home to more than 150 students, St Mary’s in Bristol now has a soil-based living wall covering over 250m² of its façade.

Featured Solutions:

• Viritopia Living Wall System (Exterior)

Environmental Gains

• 425g oxygen produced per year
• 32.5kg of dust trapped per year

• Size: 250m²

Living walls around windows

This project is another example of how a living wall can be installed around windows, made easy with our modular system.

Natural composting

Behind the planting and modules, we used our helping hand build-up, with parts supplied by Architectural Panel Solutions. As the plants grow, the corners will fill out, creating a seamless wrap-around effect. Unseen by passers-by, whilst the plants grow the roots will also be establishing and migrating from cell-to-cell within the module, made possible by the central section being a separate component. This allows for natural composting when roots die, and a healthier living wall.

Creating alternative ecological habitats

With plenty of space and varying plants for birds and insects to create new habitats and homes, this is a very biodiverse natural addition to the area. But not only with the clear environmental benefits, it is also a very aesthetically pleasing wall, standing out from the traditional buildings surrounding the development.

Urban greening, naturally

Spot the vertical gardens?

The students living in these buildings will not be the only ones benefiting from the nature that surrounds them: passers-by on the street below can catch a glimpse of this interesting example of natural architecture as they make their way through the town.