Grass-covered roof at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. Photo: Michiel van Iersel

The vertical garden on the wall of Caixa Forum in Madrid. Photo: Michiel van Iersel

It seems to be a trend among museums to use the construction of a new building to bring culture and nature closer together. Green buildings are cropping up all around the world. In June 2004, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid opened a five-story, 258,300-square-foot addition, with a grass-covered roof. Later this year Herzog & De Meuron’s cultural centre named Caixa Forum will open in another part of the Spanish capital, which includes a vertical Garden or “living wall” that was designed by the botanist Patrick Blanc.

Last year the French government opened the ethnographic Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, which is set in a luscious park (consisting of 15000 plants of 150 species from all continents) along the banks of the river Seine and also has a green facade (”le mur vegetal”) that protects it from the burning sun and the pollution from passing cars. At the Vancouver Aquarium in Canada a 500-square-foot vegetated wall holds plant materials, which are similar to those found on cliff faces, including wild flowers, mosses, and berries. And earlier this month Patrick Blanc completed yet another vertical garden, this time at the natural history museum (Le Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle) in Toulousse, which will reopen in December 2007.

P.S.: Last January the Art Newspaper already explained why it pays for museums to go green.

Luscious garden with 15000 plants at Musee du Quai Branly in Paris. Photo: Michiel van Iersel

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