Patrick Blanc - Meet the Pioneer of Vertical Gardens

Updated: Feb 8, 2019

You can't talk about vertical gardens without mentioning Patrick Blanc, widely considered the father of the green wall. Blanc is a respected botanist and landscape designer who won his fame in the '90s for developing and spreading the concept of the vertical garden, injecting lush greenery into the overwhelming grey of cities around the world.

Patrick Blanc - Green Wall Pioneer

His breakout project was installed in the Parc Floral de Paris in 1994, and gained him international recognition as an innovative and talented botanist and designer. After this, his work began to spread world-wide, being found on museums, public buildings, apartment and commercial complexes, stores and restaurants throughout the world's great capitals, from Sydney to Madrid, New York to Hong Kong, and everywhere in between.

Parc Floral de Paris

Blanc believes that faced with a green wall, a person is impacted profoundly by nature, and that the plants "dialogue" with humans through every part of their beings. He considers it a fundamental necessity to bring people into daily contact with nature, rescuing a piece of their essential nature from the more familiar drudgery of glass and concrete. This is the fundamental conceit of his work.

The maintenance of vertical gardens is also a major preoccupation of Blanc's, who does not desire that his work fails or becomes a burden for city residents after he leaves. The vegetation fixed in a special felt, automatically irrigated and fertilized through a combined fertigation system, guaranteeing that the plants get the nutrients they need and that the roots don't need to spread too far and wide in search of the necessities of life.

Blanc in Brazil

10 years after his Paris debut, Blanc made his way to Brazil, the original home of Vertical Garden, Co. In 2004, he mounted an installation at FAAP (the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation) for an exposition on the fossils of the Araripe Plateau, in Pernambuco. Here at Vertical Garden, Co., we deeply respect his history and admire his projects. Patrick Blanc is truly an inspiration for all of us.