Here are some possibilities for the proposed Ecohotel that Incredible Edible Mytholm would like to build on the Mytholm Works site, if the group is able to raise the money to buy the site and gain planning permission:

• a biodiversity green wall
• edible green screen  (mostly growing hops for use in a local brewery and kiwi fruit vines)
• rainwater harvesting

(Just to clarify: the inspiration is the biodiversity green wall, edible green screen and rainwater harvesting – not the dreary 1990s-type building they’re adorning.)

Green wall, from University of Washington website

These are all ideas that students at the University of Washington in the USA have turned into reality, working with the University’s Green Futures Lab. The aim is to find out how green walls and screens can help to promote biodiversity, produce food and reduce energy use in the building (through providing insulation for the building). And harvesting rainwater to irrigate the green wall and screen will reduce the need for drinkable water from the water mains, and may help to lessen flooding from storm rainfall, by reducing runoff from the building’s roof.

The University of Washington website explains that the two green walls, each 10-by-10 feet, will together hold more than 500 plants, including 23 species  (70 percent native to the Pacific Northwest, where the University is located.)

Along with measuring plant growth, the Green Futures Lab team will monitor such things as impacts on temperatures in the building and local air, biodiversity and water use in the areas affected by the walls and screen.

University of Washington Farm, a demonstration project on sustainable urban agriculture, is interested in harvesting the plants from the edible green screen.

Two 750-gallon cisterns will store harvested roof water for plant irrigation.

The aim is to install solar panels to provide the energy to power the irrigation pump

Here’s a video about the biodiversity green wall, edible green screen and rainwater harvesting. Be inspired!