‘FassadenGrün’ collects images of green façades from Germany, Europe and around the world. These can be paintings, postcards or photos of successful greening projects. In addition, there are external sources such as archives and photo libraries. We will be publishing this collection in stages from 2022 onwards: everyone should be able to find pictures for their region. Find out here how the archive was created, what aspects it covers and how you can contribute.
Hundreds of digital photos of green buildings already illustrate our homepage. In addition, I (Sven Taraba, owner of ‘FassadenGrün’) have collected historical views. It was a search for clues: What is our tradition as a greening company? What can we draw on and what is completely different today?
Since 2022, our team has been sorting the collection by country and county, scanning it and gradually publishing it under ‘Regions’. Take a look at how many green walls there were in your area! You may be surprised: many buildings had green decorations or even a complete ‘green dress’, but lost it later...
In the past, ‘facade greening’ was almost identical to ‘the vine trellis’ and, at higher altitudes, the espalier tree with fruit. Other plants were rarely found, as they were considered ‘useless’. That was the common view! I still remember my grandfather's tobacco trading cards with bird species, which were stuck into a book and rated according to their usefulness and harmfulness... So, decoration or climate protection were not the issues back then. If greening was to be done, then it had to be ‘wine on the house’!
The losses are enormous, especially in villages and small towns, where there are hardly any trellises left. This was often due to maintenance, which the owners were no longer willing to take on or pay for. But expertise was also lost. The decline of wine culture as a result of mildew did the rest, and today no one ‘needs’ a trellis tree on their house to have pears in winter...
Our image archive aims to make what has been lost visible. It aims to inspire amazement: ‘What, this building was once covered in greenery?’ or ‘Hard to imagine – something like that once existed in our town?’ The motifs were selected based on various criteria (see below). Price also plays a role; we cannot show everything we would like to if we cannot obtain the image rights or if they are too expensive. But perhaps you can support us with motifs?
Grapevines on walls – that was the dominant theme of earlier greening projects. But there is another reason why I am searching for wine trellises for our image archive. Real grape wine is an indicator: wherever this ‘sensitive’ plant grew, virtually all of the climbing plants shown by FassadenGrün can be planted without hesitation today!
I can usually recognise grapevines in old pictures by their thin, S-shaped stems and the habit of the shoots and leaves – see photo. Anyone who wants to grow grapevines today can find evidence in our archive that this plant used to be common in their home region!
In many of the published photos, the greenery is recognisable as such, but the question arises as to why a ‘grapevine’ is supposedly visible there and not some other climbing plant. The explanation is as follows: the botanical identification is based on the original photo, which is significantly sharper and more informative than the version published on the homepage. The photo opposite shows an example of the difference.
In the colder highlands above approximately 500 metres above sea level, I attempted to find examples of wall fruit. Most of these are espalier pears.
Another focus is on greenery that shaped the cityscape, such as in the market square or town hall of a city, including wild vines and ivy. Or a hotel with wisteria! Sometimes these robust plants were also planted as a substitute for grapevines. And if we can find illustrations, we also show climbing roses. Other plant species are hardly to be found in old illustrations, certainly for reasons of lack of ‘usefulness’ as already described.
Pictures of old wooden trellises are also an important aspect. In our image archive, you can see which designs were typical in your region! Our archive contains many pictures of ‘bare’ trellises, in which the vegetation plays no role at all. Either the vegetation has long since disappeared and the trellis has simply been left behind, or it is winter and therefore no leaves are visible...
The best images are hidden away in photo albums or hang on the wall as paintings. We are happy to receive any images you no longer need, but also scans, reproductions or simple mobile phone photos. What is important is the regional classification and permission for publication. This is for ‘scientific use’... You are also welcome to point out any errors we may have made in our classification, e.g. if a place name exists more than once!
And if you have created your own greenery, we would also be delighted to receive pictures, regardless of whether you used a climbing aid from FassadenGrün or not.
Fassadengrün is a commercial supplier of stainless steel wire rope systems in Germany, Europe and overseas. Information about: Which plants are suitable, are climbing aids necessary, should they be made of wood or metal? Here at FassadenGrün you will find all the information you need from a single source.
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