Greenworld – Winter 2016 27www.greenworldmag.com.au

indoor outdoorDESIGN • STYLE • DÉCOR

At Motyaj, we have always been the innovator in new

products and suppliers to the Australian market, starting with the supply of hand and

machine made Italian terracotta to Australia, as well

as developing fledging Asian suppliers which are now a huge

supplier to the world market.

Our new Motyaj logo is designed to keep trend with our

modern marketing to the consumer, designer, arthouse and our established clientele.

Feel free to visit our website at

as well as linking with us on Facebook to ensure you are

ahead of the trend!

www.motyaj.com.au

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Vertical Gardens & Indoor Plants

Innovation is at the heart of Coolth.inc’s operations and the company is continuously testing new plants, products and ideas

to create environments that are aesthetically pleasing as well as sustainable.

Phil Edwards started his career as an apprentice in a retail nursery, before heading to the US where he studied drafting and worked in a landscape architect’s office in Seattle. He returned to Australia to complete a degree in landscape architecture.

With a growing passion for the environment, Phil then did a master’s degree in environmental studies before working at Melbourne Water.

“I ran teams that looked at how we manage water and landscapes, and how to design the landscape to manage water for us,” Phil explains.

As interest in green roofs and vertical gardens took hold, Phil found himself involved in research programs a University of Melbourne Burnley Campus, along with other organisations. With a wealth of accumulated knowledge, Phil went on to teach about the opportunities for start up businesses in this new landscape sector.

“Innovation is about understanding what is missing, not just using your own skills and technology to create something new. A big part of that movement has been the ‘start-up’ and once I learnt and taught about that, it was impossible not to build a start-up around living architecture,” Phil explains. Coolth.inc was born in 2014.

Living architecturePhil describes living architecture as a mixture of art and science.

“There is a fundamental principal behind it that it has a scientific functional benefit to the building, but to some degree much of living architecture is not developed for that purpose; it might be for aesthetic reasons alone,” he explains.

With high density living on the rise, Phil has seen vertical gardens emerging in ways that respond to the challenge of climate change and population growth. He also sees vertical gardens as a response to productive gardening.

“There is a trend towards growing your own food again and I certainly think there is a need for landscapes within high density areas,” Phil said.

Encouraging people to grow plants for both aesthetic and environmental purposes is important to Phil. In turn, he hopes living architecture has a positive impact on the environment where it is established.

“The cooling elements of vegetation are necessary in many of our suburbs that have lacked that touch and the ability to bring ‘Coolth’. That is why we named our business Coolth.inc, because it is about the cooling of our local environments,” Phil says.

The modular design of many vertical gardens makes living architecture versatile and moveable and a perfect solution for small or rented spaces. A new system that Coolth.inc is using from The Netherlands is drip free and appropriate for use inside. ➥

Growing into living architectureCoolth.inc is a Melbourne-based company operating across Australia in the construction, maintenance and education of living architecture. Coolth.inc founder Phil Edwards’ passion for living architecture is deeply rooted in his background in horticulture, design and sustainability. Lauren Butler spoke with Phil about his journey and some new products available in Australia.

Phil Edwards heads up Coolth.inc in Melbourne.

28 Greenworld – Winter 2016

Melbourne’s leading indoor plant supplier409 Boundary Road, Heatherton 3202

Phone (03) 9265 1600 Fax (03) 9558 1327 E-Mail sales@landscapelink.com.au

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Vertical Gardens & Indoor Plants

In commercial situations, an irrigation controller can be hooked up to the system so that it is self-watering and low maintenance.

“It is an extraordinary design. The opportunity is right for Australia to adopt these systems and the science and art of vertical gardens is a huge opportunity to design in different ways. Water, plants and architecture coming together is truly the next big thing, and I want to be a part of that,” Phil says.

Modular vertical design systems and projectsCoolth.inc has been involved in a number of large vertical garden projects in Australia including the Dome Garden Supplies interior project which revolutionary technology to create a lush, vegetated look.

“Dome came to us through their architect to develop a vertical garden. Although greatly driven by the aesthetic and image of a hydroponics company, they did not want hydroponics in their foyer; they wanted a green, vegetated look. It was a branding exercise in a sense,” Phil says.

Through this project he came across the Mobilane LivePanel from Europe, distributed by The Container Connection in Australia.

“It is a game changer in terms of keeping water and soil separate and using capillary action. It uses a well-designed, patented design to change the way we water our vertical gardens. We are really confident with it and have installed quite a few,” Phil says.

Coolth.inc now uses the LivePanel and LivePicture from Mobilane, and reports positive experiences with the products.

“It is an incredible system for installing indoors because of its drip-free, lightweight, lush finish. It is concealed and close to the wall and is easy to fix if anything goes wrong,” Phil says. “We believe this is a real game changer in the vertical garden sense.”

No matter how good the system, Phil says ongoing maintenance is vital.“We don’t do a project without maintenance and if we are doing indoor

plants for a residential customer, we teach them, we engage and that is a big part of it,” he says.

Green roof systemsCoolth.inc is also involved in green roofs. According to Phil, any roof that can handle up to 200kg per square metre can be fitted with a green roof system.

“In fact Mobilane has come out with a modular system which is even lighter than that. We have had incredible success with those green roof systems. We have put a few on places and had one here in the office, and they blew my mind. I did not expect them to work so well, so here goes to innovation and engineering!”

For Coolth.inc, knowledge is truly important within the industry of living architecture, alongside innovation. At the moment, Phil said that he is interested in the strategy of growing the industry.

“This is the next big thing for the horticulture industry and it could be huge; but it takes effort, it takes capacity building, it takes new technologies and it takes good natured people to make it all happen. We are lucky that the nursery and horticulture industry is full of that, so I think it is pretty promising. I do not believe that this is a fad, I believe this is a worldwide change in the way we build our environments — and that would be the bottom line.” B

Coolth.inc is based at Cremorne in Melbourne. Visit www.coolinc.com.au or call 0419 518 018.

Coolth.inc installed the LivePanel from Mobilane for its Dome Garden Supplies interior project.