Visible from Bourke Street, a new green wall on the Loop Project Space & Bar building draws people in to Meyers Place laneway.

Wrapping around the north and west of Loop Project Space and Bar’s heritage façade, and extending up to Loop Roof three levels above, the green wall showcases a unique combination of 80 plant species carefully selected and located for vertical gardening within Meyers Place.

Delivered as a pilot project for the Urban Forest Fund, Loop received a matched-funding grant from the City of Melbourne.

Completed in 2018, the green wall covers 40m2 and is made up of 92 green wall panels. Each panel contains growing media and 12 plants. The root ball of each plant sits within the growing media and the foliage of the plant protrudes out from the surface of the panel. Plants were grown in the panels offsite for a number of months prior to installation to ensure maximum visual impact at the time of installation.

A remotely controlled fertigation system provides water and nutrients to the plants several times a day, and is varied depending on climatic conditions. The green wall uses recycled rainwater when available, and potable water at other times.

A scissor lift was used to construct the wall. First, metal frames were securely fixed to the building structure and covered with overlapping colourbond sheets. The green wall modules were then attached to this structure. Plant modules are specially designed to integrate with the irrigation system.

The vertical wall system also utilises a barrier that limits weed growth, protecting from future weeding maintenance. As the wall is north facing and surrounded by buildings on 3 of its sides, it is protected from harsh wind whiles still allowing for adequate light requirements and more successful plant establishment.