Urban Gardens

When San Francisco designer/entrepreneur Michael Good’s house plants began taking over most of his apartment’s available counter space, he realized that necessity (and Good design) would be the mother of his invention.

During an unsuccessful search for a hanging planter … Read More...

MaPharmacie is a Paris pharmacy of a greener kind. On the exterior, the standard green flashing cross which represents French pharmacies, belies what’s inside. Tinctures and capsules appear to float on living walls of medicinal plants, all reflected in mirrors … Read More...

Oh how j’adore the verdant marriage of design and horticulture in French designer Benjamin Pawlica’s Deltaflore plantable concrete green wall tiles. (You may have noticed that I’m a little obsessed with indoor-outdoor concrete everything these days.)

Just think about the … Read More...

Just twenty minutes from Cancun, away from the parties and chaos, a new resort called Nizuc is quietly doing its part to preserve the lush local landscape.

Photo: Sarah Amandolare, Urban Gardens.

Set on the grounds of what was once … Read More...

A 450-pound pivoting teak entry door leads into this private oasis tucked away into the side of Santa Monica Canyon, part of my hometown, the urban west Los Angeles County seaside city of Santa Monica. Walking distance to the beach, … Read More...

Gardening meets architecture and art in Tumbleweed, a modular plant trellis system composed of folded epoxy painted steel and aluminum strips which interact in space as a living work of art, a sculpture that supports the cultivation of indoor plants.… Read More...

Plants pop through small holes in the die-cast aluminum panels that punctuate the living facade of Green Cast, a mixed-use building in Odawara, Japan.

Designed by architects Kengo Kuma & Associates, the building’s slightly slanted panels are formed over … Read More...

Green curtains outside the Arakawa City Hall in Tokyo, Japan.Photo, Bloomberg.

Anticipating rising energy costs after Japan’s nuclear disaster, and inspired by the green curtains on the facades of many municipal and commercial buildings, many Tokyo residents have created DIY … Read More...

Spanish researchers have developed a living concrete that may define a new method for creating vertical gardens and living walls on building facades.  Capturing rainwater, the multilayered cement encourages and sustains the growth and viability of specific mosses and lichens … Read More...

City Planters, which debuted at the recent show, Dwell on Design and were named in the LA Times Top 11 of the show, are the latest in contemporary outdoor living creations from the design team at one of my favorite … Read More...