Athens, Greece
City population: 2790721
Duration: 2008 – 2008
Implementation status: Completed
Scale: Sub-microscale: Street scale (including buildings)
Project area: 8 m2
Type of area: Building
Last updated: October 2021

Athens' first vertical garden has been installed temporarily at the entrance to the City of Athens administrative building at 22 Liossion St during the city's first green cultural festival, the Green Design Festival in 2008. Such gardens have a positive impact on the environment as the plants trap carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, absorb harmful atmospheric pollution and reduce air temperature in summer, which assists in cooling the building's interior (Ref 1).

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Nature on buildings (external)
  • Green walls or facades

Key challenges

  • Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
  • Climate change mitigation
  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Environmental quality
  • Air quality improvement
  • Regeneration, land-use and urban development
  • Regulation of built environment
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Improving mental health
  • Creation of opportunities for recreation

Focus

Creation of new green areas

Project objectives

The garden was installed as part of the city's first green cultural festival, the Green Design Festival in 2008. The Green Design Festival, which runs from September 10 to October 1, is a unique, outdoor, free cultural initiative organized by the non-profit, non-governmental agency BrainLab under the auspices of the City of Athens. Over the course of the event, the entire city of Athens has been transformed into a lively interactive centre of ideas and proposals on how to make cities greener and more livable (Ref 1). BrainLab also aimed to create green space in the city where greeneries are rare. Additionally, the project targeted the citizens and encouraged them to become a "guerilla gardener" (Ref 5).

Implementation activities

The garden measured 2m x 1.5m x 4m in height and comprised flowering and evergreen plants selected for their suitability to the climatic and terrain conditions of the city centre. An automatic watering system has been installed to ensure healthy plant growth and to conserve water (Ref 1). a large volume of salt held 3m above a planter. 9 cables stretch in between. As water drips over the planter through special orifices, salt crystallizes downward forming 9 stalactites over the planter. Creeper plants grow upward from the planter. Stalactites and plants bond together in time (Ref 7).

Climate-focused activities

Climate change mitigation:

  • Install vertical or horizontal artificial surfaces that help with carbon storage and cooling

Main beneficiaries

  • Citizens or community groups

Governance

Management set-up

  • Led by non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Non-government organisation/civil society

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Taskforce groups
  • Citizen monitoring and review

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

The garden was installed as part of the city's first green cultural festival, the Green Design Festival. The Green Design Festival, which runs through October 1, is a unique, outdoor, free cultural initiative organized by the non-profit, non-governmental agency BrainLab under the auspices of the City of Athens (Ref 1,2,3).

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Yes (European Climate Change Programme (ECCP): to mitigate the climate change effects (Ref 1))
... a national policy or strategy? Yes (National Climate Change Programme, Greece: to mitigate the climate change effects (Ref 1))
... a local policy or strategy? Yes (Athens Resilience City Strategy: to incorporate Athens in 100 resilient cities. (Ref 2))

Financing

Total cost

Unknown

Source(s) of funding

  • Funds provided by non-governmental organization (NGO)

Type of funding

  • Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)
  • Donations

Non-financial contribution

Type of non-financial contribution
  • Provision of labour
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
  • Public authorities (e.g. land, utility services)

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Climate change
  • Lowered local temperature
  • Enhanced carbon sequestration
  • Environmental quality
  • Improved air quality
  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased green space area

Economic impacts

  • Unknown

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Improvement in people’s connection to nature
  • Increased appreciation for natural spaces

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts, Achieved impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

No evidence in public records

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No

References

1. First Vertical Garden Adorns City of Athens’ Building. 2008. City of Athens. URL: Source link Accessed on 17th July 2020.
2. Green Design Festival. Athens , Greece. September 2008. Youtube video. URL: Source link Accessed on 17th July 2020.
3. Green Design Festival promotes environmentalism in Athens. 2010. The Greek Reporter. URL: Source link Accessed on 17th July 2020.
4. Green Design Festival, Athens 2008. [website not available in 2020].
5. Green Design Festival. 2008. Flicker. URL: Source link. Accessed on 7th July, 2020.
6. Green Design Around Athens. 2010. New Diaspora, New Dialogue. URL: Source link. Accessed on 7th July, 2020.
7. Petros Babasikar Office. 2010. Drip I. Public Installation. Vertical Garden. URL: Source link. Accessed on 7th July, 2020.
8. Vertical Gardens. Landco Ltd. URL: Source link. Accessed on 7th July, 2020.