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Space is limited in densely packed Japan meaning there is hardly any room remaining for garden space – but one great solution to this constraint is to place gardens right on the exteriors of buildings! Possibly a precursor to Patrick Blanc’s famous living walls ^[5], Italian-born architect and artist, Gaetano Pesce ^[6] designed and built the plant-clad Organic Building ^[7] in Japan. The exterior of the building is an eye-catching vertical garden that takes its conceptual cues from bamboo.

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Completed in 1993, the Organic Building has since been named a civic landmark by the City of Osaka, which has undertaken its maintenance in perpetuity. The exterior is covered with steel-encased concrete panels glazed with a red finish that feature rather cute extruding pockets ^[9]. Inside these containers are fiberglass planters that contain more than 80 types of indigenous plants and trees selected in collaboration with Osaka horticulturists, and they are all irrigated via a computer-controlled hydrating system of mechanical pipes.

The Organic Building is Pesce ^[6]‘s most famous structure and features 7,052 square meters of interior space, and nine stories with restaurants and retail on the street with office space above. Qualities of bamboo ^[10] – “its distinctive verticality, undulating surface, and tendency to grow into a network of interlocking but nonetheless unique spaces” inspired the building’s wavy skin and window placement. The red exterior is also in direct contrast to the surrounding neighborhood’s gray uniformity.

+ Gaetano Pesce ^[6]

+ Organic Building ^[7]

photo credit: Veronica Belmont Flickr ^[11]