Moss walls: the newest trend in biophilic interiors

It’s been a long week, and here you are, still frantically thinking of all the things you need to do with the time you don’t have. But then, gentle rolling hills of moss beckon and soothe you, and all melts away. You breathe more deeply, soften your gaze. Plant your feet, feel the earth beneath you. This is the timeless appeal of the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/moss/" target="_blank">moss wall</a>. Its subtle shades of green and grey evoke simplicity and peacefulness, while tiny details suggest an ancient, mysterious, but benevolent world beyond our understanding. A miniature landscape of moss and lichen invites you to forget your hurry- slow down, breathe deeply. Moss walls are the <a href="http://www.mosswallart.com/" target="_blank">latest trend in interior décor</a>, but their secrets are very old. A thousand years ago, the Zen Buddhist monks of Japan delighted in the cool tranquility of the moss that grew in their temple gardens. They cultivated them on stones and walls, creating the sensation of expansiveness, freedom from clutter and daily distraction. For them, moss was an essential element: a symbol of harmony, age, and tradition that facilitated meditation.

<a href="http://www.phgmag.com/resources/southwest/201303/2013-master-of-the-southwest-joe-zazzera---plant-g/" target="_blank">Joe Zazzera</a> and Pat Mahan are at the forefront of this lovely new trend in interior living designs. Joe and Pat are the long-time owners of <a href="http://www.plantsolutions.com/" target="_blank">Plant Solutions</a>, a company that designs interior plantscapes in Arizona.

ver 25 years of designing natural installations, they kept hearing clients ask for designs that did not require watering or maintenance, but still brought the sensation of nature into their interior spaces. They discovered that they could create dimensional art pieces that abstracted natural design, and complemented all kinds of interiors.

Tiny landscapes of lichen and moss rest alongside wood and stone, mimicking the natural beauty of the outdoors, and bringing it within.

In modern cities, where air pollution and artificial surfaces intrude upon us, mosses and lichens persist in the forgotten spaces between our daily frenzies -- on roof tiles and between pavers, in sidewalk cracks, and along concrete walls.

Lichens thrive in the leftover places of the world, too harsh for other creatures: frozen Arctic tundra, scorching dry deserts, rocky shorelines, poisoned slag heaps, and within solid rock. Lichens can voyage into space, become exposed to massive doses of ultraviolet and cosmic radiation, and return to Earth as happy as the day they left.