Garden on the Wall Features Biophilic Design BDNY 2023

An award winning provider of maintenance-free, biophilic wall installations, Garden on the Wall (GOTW) exhibited at the Boutique Design New York (BDNY) 2023. Held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in November, the event featured a GOTW booth with an expansive display of an all-natural biophilic garden and samples of various preserved species.

The centerpiece “Biophilia Ascending” garden featured a pathway composed of complementary plant and floral species, from fern to moss, ascending a steep mountain. The scene represents GOTW’s rapid expansion trajectory as the company scales the apex of innovative green interior design.

As founder and managing partner Mine Hisim described it, the garden adheres to his firm’s strictly controlled fabrication and installation protocol, emphasizing sustainability and biodiversity values. The tableau shows biophilic design’s profound impact in brightening and enlivening corporate, institutional, and public spaces. The firm maintains a wide-ranging clientele that spans significant hotels and Fortune 500 companies. Visitors to the GOTW booth took home brochures and expert knowledge imparted by top sales and design team members.

Are People Hard-Wired to Love Nature? The Theory of Biophilia Says Yes

Climate change has underscored the close relationships between humankind and the rest of the natural world. Running parallel to awareness of human-caused environmental damage is the idea that people have an inborn connection to and love of life in all its forms.

The concept of biophilia (a combination of Greek words for life and love) was independently proposed by social psychologist Erich Fromm and biologist Edward O. Wilson. Fromm saw biophilia as a psychological orientation, while Wilson perceived it as an essential component of human evolution. Taken together, biophilia implies not only a physical need for food and water but an aesthetic, intellectual, and spiritual connection. Examples include the human love of trees and flowers and the attachment to pets.

Recent research indicates that contact with nature, whether in the wild or urban settings, reduces cortisol, the chemical that produces stress. Walking or even gazing out a window has been shown to brighten one’s outlook. Conversely, an absence of contact between people and nature may be linked to behavioral problems, particularly in children.

Interior design is one way to improve natural encounters, even indoors. For example, using reclaimed wood for floors and walls creates a sense of beauty and reminds people of the outside. Vertical gardens of plants on shelves also provide refreshment in a constructed environment. Finally, windows that allow copious sunlight can enhance well-being and increase productivity.

Garden on the Wall is one of the best tools at interior designer’s toolbelt to use natural plants in these designed spaces to create this connection we long for the nature, while making sure there is no additional effort or upkeep regimens applied to keep these gardens maintained. Garden on the Wall is a wonderful design element that is proven to reduce cortisol levels (thus less stress conditions) and increase oxytocin, seratonin and dopamin level to create the connection, content feel along with belonging to the built environment.

Southern Lancaster Market with Biophilic Installation Earns AIA Awar

In October 2023, Garden on the Wall (GOTW) announced that one of the firm’s vertical plant installations had been integral to earning American Institute of Architects (AIA) accolades through a Merit Award for Excellence in Interior Design. The AIA’s Central Pennsylvania chapter presented the award to RLPS Architects, which oversaw redesigning the Southern Lancaster Market building.

The central Lancaster space was converted for mixed-use as office space and as a food hall, with the interior design highlighting a GOTW indoor garden installation. The AIA recognized the project for its functionality and aesthetics, and for the way it took an outmoded facility and elevated it into a space that meets the demands of today’s visitors.

As GOTW’s founder and managing partner Mine Hisim described, the firm’s installation “takes center stage,” anchoring a vaulted space above the food court. Encased in custom-milled wood, the installation has a natural appearance that combines moss, fern, and forest species. These biodiverse species are part of a turn-key, maintenance-free approach that preserves the plants with a vibrant, fresh look for a decade or more. As Hisim put it, the local community enjoys this rejuvenated space refreshed with GOTW’s biophilia.”

About the Architizer Awards

Established in 2014, Garden on the Wall LLC offers turn-key vertical garden installations for interior spaces for different clients. The firm uses maintenance-free, naturally preserved plants that do not require water, light, or soil. The plants are made to last, with the same vibrancy for seven to 10 years. Garden on the Wall LLC has won several awards over the years for its installations, including the prestigious Architizer A+ awards thrice.

Established in 2011, the Architizer A+ awards are considered the largest awards that recognize architecture, designers, and spaces. The community has an audience of over seven million architects and building products dealers and a global audience of over 400million.

Other than architects, the over 250 judges are drawn from diverse fields that include real estate, technology, and fashion and select five finalists from each of the 119 award categories, including Firm, Typology, and Plus, with the final votes conducted online by design practitioners and enthusiasts. The winners receive a trophy, published in the annual World’s Best Architecture copy, an A+ list press release, and digital badges.

A Better World Starts at Home – Bringing Energy to African Communities

An award-winning provider of maintenance-free gardens for interior use, Garden on the Wall has completed over 140,000 square feet of garden installations (as of Sept 2022). Garden on the Wall operates as a leader in the provision of unique ecological solutions to clients across the United States, and the company supports organizations such as Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat for Humanity is a global nonprofit with a mission of ensuring that the world’s most disadvantaged communities have a decent place to call home. Its joint endeavors include A Better World Starts at Home, a campaign launched by the IKEA Foundation to support Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to provide communities in East Africa with access to power. This initiative is administered in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Rainforest Alliance, the SELCO Foundation, and One Acre Fund.
Although sub-Saharan Africa has plentiful resources, supply shortages indicate that affordable renewable energy will remain inaccessible to millions of people across the region in the coming years. For impoverished or underserved communities to effectively function, they need reliable energy to power businesses, hospitals, homes, and schools. Children depend on it to study and play after sunset, as well as for keeping safe at night.
Habitat for Humanity works closely with governments, local enterprises, and families to design, support, and enable solutions toward accessibility to renewable energy. A Better World Starts at Home has so far helped approximately 70,000 Ugandan children and their families.

The Value of Volunteering with Habitat for Humanity

Garden on the Wall LLC is a company that provides maintenance-free garden installations specifically for the interiors of buildings. A benefit of these installations is that they require little to no care and can last for as long as ten years. Garden on the Wall LLC donates to different charities, including Habitat for Humanity and Children with Cancer.

Habitat for Humanity is a non-governmental charity that understands and appreciates the value of volunteers in charity work. The organization utilizes many volunteers to complete its charity projects. Volunteers work in different sectors of Habitat for Humanity, from supervising office projects to community drives.

In return, volunteers gain experience in performing different services such as program organizing and donations, which may help develop and finance their own communities. Volunteers also develop a sense of altruism through consistent volunteering.

Many volunteers are physically and mentally active when helping a charity organization. They must develop goals and strategies for spreading awareness, logistics, and financing charity drives. Medical experts agree that achieving goals is beneficial to reducing depression and improving the overall well-being of a person.