Make Your City Greener, A New Sustainable Design
“Cities have changed a lot,” laments the promotional video for an innovative design project. “We see more buildings than trees growing in them. And on the gray walls of these buildings, thousands of advertisement posters are placed one on top of another.” And that’s where Plants of Posters begins.
Meet Juan Frias and Fede Moreno—the creative minds behind this sustainable design project. The two, who used to work together for Leo Burnett in Madrid, were traveling through Spain when they noticed the walls of buildings covered in old advertisements. “This was one thing that really [caught] our attention because it isn’t a common thing in our countries,” explains Frias who hails from Brazil. “Those posters are nice to see, but [they] made us think about the impact [on] the environment.” With that, Frias and Moreno saw an opportunity to bring a little green back into city centers.
After being inspired by hanging gardens and rooftop greens, the two began designing and testing right away. The goal: find a way to use the dilapidated posters to hold plants, bringing a little bit of nature to the concrete jungle. The designs had to be easy enough for anyone to assemble, but also beautiful enough that they would catch pedestrians’ attention as they passed by. Frias and Moreno settled on six vase designs, each one fitting on an A3 sheet of paper: the Augalas, the Menanam, the Paudah, the Växt, the Rastlina and, the most recent addition inspired by Brazilian paper lanterns, the Kasvi. Each model was influenced by recognizable vase designs and recreated using “the principles of packaging and origami folding techniques.”
To learn more about the project and to download your favorite template, visit www.plantsofposters.org and start bringing a little more green to your city.
Draplin image: Leah Nash. Hische: Helena Price. Lupton: Michelle Qureshi. Scher: Ian Roberts.