London County Hall: Inside the landmark where they’re trying to save the Earth

On the wall in the foyer is what looks like a large artwork, with curved strips of moss growing on a grey background above a drainpipe.

It may look like an unusual work of art but is actually a form of “living wall”, absorbing pollutants from the room while also helping to cool the building, says Nick Naidu, founder and CEO of Alive Labs.

“There’s a real drive for ‘green walls’, but green walls are struggling with the challenge, they’re just not quite succeeding. They’re quite costly, they fail a lot of the time and so we saw that there’s a real lack of innovation in this space.”

His company therefore struck on the idea of using a different form of plant life.

“We’re working with mosses because they’re quite happy growing in the urban environment. They’ve evolved in London, they’ve survived through our industrialisation period so they’re pretty robust,” he says.