OPINION |
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The practical answer is that live plants and living walls are nearly impossible to maintain temporarily . They fall apart readily and get damaged in transit . Neither can they be shipped easily internationally because of import restrictions .
Once installed , exhibit teams on site , not always fully briefed , often fail to water
Timber costs have escalated
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“ Isn ’ t a more theatrical display using waste plastic a better message than off-the-shelf plastic plants ?” |
Living walls are hard to maintain
them and , set inside enclosed spaces with no natural daylight , the plants often wither and die . Dried moss – a living material which enters a dormant state without water - is a good alternative option , but even that has to be treated with great care to look good enough for client requirements .
A creative and pragmatic answer to planting , without embodying the single-useplastic issue it ’ s supposed to be arguing against , has come out of the festival scene this year .
At a leading British festival , an on-site machine processed waste plastic into sheets , which were then used to make ‘ prop ’ plants . Yes , they ’ re still plastic , but they ’ re not new or single use and the plastic is endlessly recyclable this way , with props teams manually making moulds and then painting the leaves to look like plants .
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Of course , at a festival scale , planting doesn ’ t need to look as real as at an exhibition scale , but isn ’ t a more ‘ theatrical presentation ’ using waste plastic a better message for clients than offthe-shelf plastic plants ?
When it comes to other materials in the build , there are still very few clients prepared to pay for more experimental new sustainable products .
The resistance is partly because they ’ re untested – presenting something of a vicious circle - but mostly because of the high price .
In the materials field , it ’ s hard to find anything more natural or high-quality than timber , but even the best FSC-certified timber doesn ’ t come without issues .
Many companies only use wood-based stands twice , with the timber facing a different way each time , simply because it ’ s too labour-intensive to clean or take out the nails each time . Timber costs have also gone through the roof in the last few years . A sheet of ply that would have cost £ 30 pre-pandemic now costs £ 80 . When clients compare timber costs with man-made boards or ‘ timber effect ’ finishes - cheaper , more durable , and requiring less care or skill to manufacture - it ’ s hard to blame them for choosing option two . EN
l So how exactly can we make progress ? Go online to www . exhibitionnews . co . uk to read part two .
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68 — Winter |