DESIGN APPROACH
- Date:
- Location: Dubai, UAE
Soil plants contain and attract natural insects. And that isn’t acceptable for a hygienic space such as a hospital. Luckily the hydroculture planting system offers the perfect solution to use insect-free life plants and add the natural freshness and humidity to a hospital space that it vitally needs.
The hydroculture planting system is a non-soil planting system. From the very start, the plant is grown in water and then directly planted into leca stones or hydroculture stones. These special stones do not provide insects with a breeding space. And neither does water attract insects. Insects can not live in a water-based planting system such as the hydroculture planting system. Therefore it is the only solution when you want to use life plants in hospitals.
And it can not be stressed enough how important living plants are for a hospital. The natural and physical benefits of hydroculture plants have been shown in numerous tests.
The polyethylene plant pots made in Germany used in this project were customized to match in color of the area. The benefit of using polyethylene plant pots over fiberglass/GRP plant pots is that the color never wears off as it is part of the original material and not painted on. Further, these plant pots are robust and do not dent or break. The perfect choice for such a commonly used area such as a hospital. Exclusive Plant Pots were included as the focal point for the entrance area – customized to match the indoor color scheme.
The plant selection was based on the existing light situation. While Ficus plants could be used at the entrance where they had enough natural light, inside it was ‘dark’. Never forget that lamp lights do not provide the correct light a natural plant needs for its growth. So for areas where the light situation is less, special plant growth lamps can be installed or plants that do grow in dark areas should be selected – as was done in this project.
