Stanley Hart White, a professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois, pioneered living green walls in 1938 when he came up with the idea of “botanical bricks”—units of plants that can be built up to any height to create a vertical garden landscape.

But it wasn’t until French botanist Patrick Blanc showed the world the first major vertical garden project at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris in 1986. This is when the green wall really took off as a popular treatment in sustainable architecture.

Vertical gardens can be used as an artistic interior feature wall, or as a green facade that enhances privacy by creating a curtain of plants on the exterior of a building.

Along with their pleasing visual effects, they also help increase oxygen in the air and reduce ambient noise. Green wall exterior facades can also help keep a building cool. Here are some ways that modern architects and interior designers are using vertical gardens to enliven their projects.

Placing Plants Between Windows

Bringing a Natural Oasis Into a Home's Courtyard

Boxing Off a Home Studio

Shaded Hotel Balconies With Cantilevered Planters

Work of Art in a Manhattan Apartment

Small Pocket Garden

Lining a Restaurant, Bar, and Art Gallery in Lisbon

Promoting the Ecological Health of the Bay Area

Placing a Jungle by the Stairs

Riding Up the Wall, Literally