Houseplants in the Big City

Manchester is a city that is continually expanding. In recent years the city has been a hub of scaffolding, diggers and emerging glass buildings. Just as bees expand their hives to accommodate their growing populations, Manchester city centre has become a hotspot for shiny new apartments and office spaces.

This ever evolving urbanisation of the city centre causes damage to the environment and the people that live in these conditions: the production of pollution, an increasing carbon footprint and the reality of living with little access to clean air or green spaces.

However, not all hope is lost! There are vast projects underway in Manchester that seek to reduce their carbon footprint, create more green spaces, and make the city centre a more environmentally friendly place.

The Eden building photographed very kindly by Felicity!

For example, Eden is a large office block located at the New Bailey which boasts the largest hydroponic tower in all of Europe. A hydroponic tower is a structure that pumps water and plant nutrients from the base to the top of the structure, allowing the water to trickle down and hydrate the plant roots.

As pictured, Eden is a genuine green haven of plants, and their website states that they have over 350,000 plants on the green wall. Not only does this look gorgeous in comparison to the surrounding buildings, but it is giving back to the environment constantly.

According to their website, Eden ‘provide[s] a 2000% biodiversity gain in the local area, clean[s] the air and create[s] a habitat for the birds and the bees.’ You can read more about it on their website here.

In addition to the greening of Manchester buildings, as of today there is a new urban park a short walk from Victoria train station forming part of the Victoria North regeneration project. St Catherine’s Wood is a wooded green space that seeks to help people in the city reconnect with nature. Hopefully this will be the first of many green space developments across the city centre!

So alongside ogling the Eden building, and taking a trip to St Catherine’s wood, what more can you do living in the city centre to connect with nature? Get a houseplant, duh!

According to the RHS, houseplants reduce people’s stress levels. They produced a study that correlated the perceived attractiveness of a plant to how beneficial the participant felt the plant was in improving the air quality around them. When they were happy with the plant, they felt happier in the workplace. (Read more about this here!)

In addition, plants do improve the air quality by absorbing pollutants. They also release moisture from their leaves into the air, improving humidity and cooling the temperature of the room down. This is majorly important when climate change proves itself to be worsening yearly, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees in the UK recently.

Alex’s plant pop-ups are extremely popular in the towering buildings of Manchester city centre, ranging from apartment blocks to local offices. Companies like Savills, Lloyds, Natwest all see the benefits of bringing plants into the workplace for all the reasons stated above. Improving the air quality and vibe of an office leads to happier workers, less stress and people just generally feeling well in themselves.

In addition, Manchester’s huge culture of high-rise apartment living is a cry out for more plants that can add nature’s touch into the comfort of your living room when you feel just that bit too far away from the gorgeous greens of the peaks or your local patch of grass.

The Castings - Ancoats, Manchester

Poplin Apartments - Manchester City Centre