Wisley Children's Garden

The Royal Horticultural Society garden at Wisley is very kid-friendly, with a spacious glasshouse, an interactive 'Root Zone' worthy of a commerical science centre, and a teaching garden that offers "hand's on experience to gardeners of all abilities and ages."

The garden was designed by Cleve West and features an "environmentally sustainable garden shed" with a sedum roof. (I think it's the sedum roof that makes it environmentally sustainable.) I visited the garden on a chilly and raw December day, but the garden was looking quite pretty and the sedums, of course, were holding their own.

Wavy Roof

The living roof at the California Academy of Sciences is nearly 200,000 square feet that dramatically dips and mounds atop the completely renovated 85-year old building. The building was designed by Italian Architect Renzo Piano. (Nice slideshow here).

Rana Creek Nursery planted the roof with a proprietary system they designed specifically for the building. Called the BioTray, the biodegradable trays are made from tree sap and coconut husks.

A few dozen plants were trialled to see if they could survive on the roof. The Academy of Sciences is in Golden Gate Park, which is subject not only to sun, but also to wind, fog, and salt spray from the nearby ocean. (I spent many cold summer days in that park.) The final planting consists of a blend of annuals and perennials, all natives, including

Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis)
Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris)
Sea Pink (Armeria maritima ssp. californica)
Stonecrop (Sedum spathulifolium)
Tidy Tips (Layia platyglossa)
Goldfield (Lasthenia californica)
Miniature Lupine (Lupinus nanus)
California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)
California Plantain (Plantago erecta)

Blanc/Herzog and deMeuron 1

The CaixaForum Madrid, a venue for visual and performing arts, sports on of Patrick Blanc's tapestry-like living walls. Overlooking a public plaza, the wall covers nearly 500 square metres and holds 15,000 plants. The building was a former power station, built originally in 1899 and redesigned by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.

M. Blanc's Vertical Gardens are protected by copyright, as explained here.