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The installation, more than 500 square meters of green, will house 15 trees and will occupy the wall of the Palace of Metallurgy
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The work will be completed in December, has a budget of one million and is planned as a connection with Montjuïc
Barcelona will add to its heritage of green elements a wall that today is not exactly the most beautiful in the Catalan capital. CaixaForum has announced this Monday that, if the planned deadlines are met, it will have a vertical forest from December, an unprecedented project, which will be located next to the entrance of the complex, on Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia avenue.The forest will be on the wall of the Palace of Metallurgy, where he was in the La Pérgola restaurant. It will have an area of 535 square meters in which they will be distributed and 22,000 plants that will coexist with 15 large trees in suspension. Forty autochthonous or climate-adapted plant species, including the trees themselves, shrubby, climbing and hanging plants, will form the set, weighing four tons, a weight that will not fall on the wall as the self-supporting structure is made of galvanized steel. on rock wool.
The work will be coordinated by the vertical gardening and green roof company Babilon with the collaboration of Arquitectura i Paisatge, Vidal i Solanes Arquitectes and Most Eginyers.
Water consumption will be reduced because a rainwater collection system and use of irrigation water will be used. There will be 13 reservoirs to store water that will cover 15 irrigation days, seven in the driest months. The trees will be in planters with a height of 1.7 meters with a length of between 1.6 and two meters.
“A Gift to the City”
The presentation of the project, which has a budget of around one million euros, was attended by the deputy director general of Fundació La Caixa, Elisa Durán; the director of services, venues and infrastructures of Fira de Barcelona, Marc Serra, and the deputy mayor for Ecology and Urban Planning, Janet Sanz.
Durán explained that the vertical forest “is a gift to Barcelona” on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of CaixaForum, and he has specified that the vegetation that will be installed on the wall is already growing in greenhouses so that in December it can dress the entrance of the cultural facility.
The general director has also reported that it is still to be determined what exactly are the tree species chosen to be located in the vertical forest.
sculptures
The installation will have a sculptural part, made up of works that will reproduce the roots of the trees, since the real ones cannot be seen.
The initiative is planned as a link between the city, the urban fabric, and the green of Montjuïc that is a few meters away, across the street. Although there are no precedents for vertical forests, Duran has said, there are precedents for vertical gardens. One is at CaixaForum Madrid. Another can be seen at CosmoCaixa.
The 1929 exhibition
Durán explained that with the project to recover in some way “the spirit of the 1929 International Exposition & rdquor ;, with which Barcelona turned to make Montjuïc a main area of the city.
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The initiative will also have an educational aspect. Through a QR code, viewers will be able to learn about aspects of the relationship between plant and human history: migratory movements, feeling of belonging. There will also be graphics and videos providing information about the vertical forest.
Serra and Sanz have praised the project promoted by CaixaForum. The deputy mayor celebrated the fact that the initiative contributes to the goal of renaturalizing Barcelona and mentioned the program through which the council will invest two million euros to support the construction of between 30 and 35 green dividing walls in a period of 12 to 15 months.