Cristina Hodgson
MALAGA airport to boast living walls with more than 10,000 live plants.
The world’s number one airport operator AENA (Spain’s Airports and Air Navigation) has put in motion the installation of four automated vertical gardens at various points inside the airport to improve acoustics, and reduce carbon dioxide concentrations and dust in the air.
In sharp contrast to the low air quality onboard planes, disembarking in Malaga airport will now mean a breath of fresh air.
Taking advantage of the reduction in activity due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the airport is undergoing a major facelift including an upgrade the airport’s waste management facilities, the adaptation of accesses and exits to car parks P1 and P2, accesses to Pier B of T2, the remodelling of toilets, the adaptation of Dock C for Schengen traffic, the complete renovation of the air-conditioning in T2 as well as the design and installation of four vertical gardens.
The living wall arrangement works with a ventilation system that helps to reduce energy consumption by naturally lowering temperatures in the summer.
The green façades, currently being finalised, also help reduce sound reflection and can filter harmful airborne pollutants like carbon dioxide from the air.
These plants will also generate tons of oxygen that will circulate the airport each year, enhancing the visitor experience through improved thermal comfort, not to mention the beauty of the living wall, which from a social and mental health perspective brings a sense of serenity and joy.
Malaga airport isn’t the only space in Malaga to boast a striking vertical garden.
Restaurant Jose Carlos Garcia, one of the Michelin star restaurants on the Costa del Sol, is famed for its outstanding gastronomy, but also for its vertical garden made up of native plants from the Montes de Malaga—thyme, lavender and rosemary.
Herbs which are even used in the restaurant’s kitchen, as they grow without any type of pesticides and inside the restaurant, the ferns and other species aim to recreate the Mediterranean Sea.
READ MORE:
- Spain’s Malaga lays ambitious foundations for a green belt around the city to combat climate change.
