Sagegreenlife
We live in an age of abundance, and that is one of the reasons why wellbeing will be one of the trends of the future. Most of your needs can be perfectly satisfied, but one can never be too well. WellTech, the ecosystem of technologies connected to support our life, is speedily becoming a giant global industry and we at Protechaweek are monitoring the intersection of WellTech and Proptech closely. In this week’s edition, we take a closer look at another company where the combination of wellbeing and real estate blend seamlessly.
What?
Sagegreenlife is creating living green walls that encourage a healthy indoor environment. Their vertical garden systems can help fight off indoor air pollution and increase the ability to focus at work or study. Green walls fit into the biophilic design trend, where designers try to mimic nature’s design in search of a positive impact on the residents’ wellbeing.
To achieve (indoor) green walls that are both robust and low maintenance the company combines 3 distinct technological building blocks.
Biotile: Layered rock fiber, Rockwool that evenly distributes water, oxygen en nutrients. Rockwool has the advantages that it does not degrade, and can easily be recycled. Rockwool is antimicrobial which is a plus for indoor usage and doesn’t change in volume under the influence of moister of temperature.
Irrigation: A water-efficient integrated irrigation system that only delivers the exact amount of water the plants need.
IoT technology: Technology that monitors the plant healths 24/7 in realtime, alerting the maintenance team whenever something goes awry and providing them with oversight on their green wall installations.
Biotile imagery by Sagegreenlife
Why
Let’s be honest, up until now, we’ve been using dead, boring materials as room dividers. Who needs that kind of negativity in their space? Living walls give you a way to have contact with nature inside your building. Nature having a beneficial influence on the human spirit has been long since established. More recent research indicates that plants in the office can also make us more productive. Biophilia, Greek for love of life and the living world, also is credited with medical qualities:
The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician - Paracelsus
Normally we ignore the opinion of 15th Century swiss botanists, but more recently researchers came to the same conclusion.
And the list of advantages for green walls continues, they have appreciable acoustic properties as the plants absorb sound waves, they increase natural humidity and they improve air quality by reducing CO2 and pollutants.
Oh yeah, and they look pretty cool too….
imagery by Pulltab Design
Why not?
Biodiversity is a cause that most people appreciate more on a theoretical level rather than in their immediate (indoor) space. While the IoT component provided by Sagegreenlife will mitigate the potential for pests and gnats, living walls can attract an assortment of insects and or pests.
Also not surprisingly, there are significant costs associated with installing and maintaining a living wall.
Considering that the cognitive and psychological advantages mentioned in the why section above are also at least close to the effect provoked by watching photos of nature a photo wall might be a defendable alternative.
Watch for 3 minutes and enjoy the stress reduction provided by the Photo by Lukasz Szmigiel
Who?
Sagegreenlife was founded in 2010 by Richard Kincaid who earlier served as CEO at Equity Office Properties. After the successful sale of Equity Office Properties to the Blackstone Group, Richard took an interest in sustainable real estate, focusing on LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects. This led ultimately to the founding of Sagegreenlife. The company has since registered 6 patents and raised $3,4M in funding.
Who else?
As Biophilic design is a worldwide trend that is picked up by major design studios around the world, there are multiple competitors in the smart green wall space.
Florafelt doesn’t use the brick-like Rockwool concept but instead uses soft felted pockets and wraps. Its solution is less technology-focused and doesn’t include the IoT monitoring system that other manufacturers provide.
Just like Florafelt Gsky, Livewall and Ansglobal produce soil-based living wall systems. They provide all the building blocks for your custom green wall projects.
The finish company Naava Green Walls takes a very productized approach to the living wall concept and packages it as a biological air purification system. The system doesn’t just include sensors and an irrigation system but also provides a fan (for better airflow), and a lighting system (to provide optimal lighting including day/night cycle to keep your plants happy).
Zauben is coming out with its Model Z a beautiful designed living wall system that even received an honorable mention by Time Magazine in its best inventions of 2020 list.
A specific type of living wall is the moss wall, moss is specifically suited for acoustical purposes and low on maintenance. Notable suppliers are Mosmuur and Greenmood.
Further reading?
Wellbeing: the next disrupted industry
The Biophilic Office: What It Is And Why It Works
National Geographic: This Is Your Brain on Nature
Things happening
Home assistant, the popular open-source home-automation platformed launched a hardware bundle last week: Home Assistant Blue… Bloomberg CITYLAB published a nice writeup on how Singapore tackles rising temperatures through building design and technology… Ziggu, the real-estate customer engagement platform raised €1 million… Smart glass company View announces plans to go public…