Biodiversity boost for Gloucester as The Forum’s vertical garden completes

The final of almost 5,000 panels has now been installed on the 600 square metre vertical garden at £107m Forum development, transforming Gloucester’s city centre.

The ‘green wall’ on the new development, which is being brought forward by Gloucester City Council and partners Reef Group, is made up of more than 4,800 panels and 48,000 individual plants, set to capture the same amount of carbon as 32 trees.

Sitting on the site’s new multi-story car park, the vertical garden features 80 plants per square metre and will boost biodiversity, improve air quality and help with temperature control by cooling the building in the summer.

It will be watered through a hydroponics system running through the wall, using a plant feed that includes recycled rainwater.

Niall McEvoy, green infrastructure consultant at designers Viritopia, said: “Our approach to a living wall project takes into account many factors, including the orientation of the building to consider the sunlight, planting species with the same irrigation requirements, and understanding which plants will thrive in a built environment. The plants chosen provide a range of ecological benefits, spanning from providing shelter for wildlife, capturing carbon and producing nectar for bees.

“Maintenance of the living wall has also been carefully considered as you can’t tend to it as you would a normal garden. We will undertake monthly health check visits, as well as scheduled, seasonal horticultural prunes where a cherry picker will be used to access the whole width and height of the wall.”

The plants are mostly evergreen with some bulbs providing splashes of seasonal colour. Plants for the wall spent two years growing in a nursery before being planted into the specially designed panels.

The new vertical garden is in line with the development’s green credentials and Gloucester City Council’s pledge to do more to tackle climate change.

Cllr Jeremy Hilton, leader of Gloucester City Council, said: “Green walls have a vast number of benefits and can work to reduce temperatures and improve air quality, as well as making cities more liveable and pleasant places to be.

“We know global warming will present us with huge challenges but by prioritising sustainable building designs and green spaces like the green wall, we’re preparing for a changing climate and helping to reduce our emissions.”

The Forum, which offers premium office space, retail space, restaurants, and a boutique hotel, is being built to a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ and will be net-zero carbon in operation.

Peter Langly-Smith, managing director at Reef Group, said: “As well as boosting the site’s biodiversity, the living wall is an impressive focal point to The Forum. Requiring specialist design and expert installation, we’re proud to have one of the largest vertical gardens in the South West.

“A challenge in any urban development is maximising its environmental credentials and the living wall is a perfect example of how we have embraced that challenge. It provides ecological benefits, as well as a real connection to nature in the heart of the city.”

To promote sustainable travel, The Forum is next to Gloucester’s new 6.4m bus station and the train station, as well as providing bicycle parking on-site. The 398-space car park, operated by Q-Park, will include 39 spaces with electric vehicle charging points.

The Forum is part of Gloucester’s £200m regeneration project to transform Gloucester city centre with partners, the University of Gloucestershire.