Plantitecture: aerial video for ANS Global’s ‘living walls’ in Manchester
In the world of ecology, there’s a lot of talk at the moment about Biodiversity Net Gain. Historically, construction projects have had to meet some sustainability standards.
Now, new UK laws require urban planners and developers to leave the areas they build within more biodiverse than before, so nature thrives because of new constructions, not in spite of them.
One of the worldwide leaders in this space is ANS Global, who asked Solent Sky Services to capture a drone’s-eye view of some of their ‘living walls’ — beautiful plant-covered façades!
Myself (Mike) and Jan headed to Stockport, just outside Manchester, bound for The Mailbox — a building comprised of serviced apartments and commercial office space, named for its previous life as a postal sorting office up until its closure in 2010. We met Nigel, the CEO of Rise Homes, who own and run the building.
ANS Global had asked us to capture and edit a video of The Mailbox’s ‘living wall’ as a showcase to feature on their website and to share with their clients. We had three main types of shots in mind:
Drone footage of the plant wall which puts The Mailbox into the context of its surroundings
Ground video to show the biophilic instalment as people walking past would see it
An interview with Nigel to act as a testimonial
The Drone Shots
Laws are also changing in the drone industry, it turns out! In December 2020, the UK made it legal to fly drones which weigh under 250 grams with greatly reduced distances.
Before these changes, flying and filming in the residential streets of Stockport might have been trickier to accomplish professionally — but now, equipped with our sub-250g Mavic Mini 2, it was simple and no OSC was required.
You’ll spot Rise Homes CEO Nigel in some of these photos. You might also notice the large chimney in the background adorned with the letters ‘HAT MUSEUM’! Stockport was indeed home to a thriving hat industry around the turn of the 20th century, and this museum, named Hat Works, honours the stories of that era.
The Ground Shoot
Snapping and recording from a pedestrian perspective went just as perfectly. The pavement-to-roof stretch of vibrant green plants looks astounding from every angle.
We soon realised we were beneath the flight paths of many planes heading to and from Manchester Airport, and got some solid shots of ANS Global’s installation framing passing jets.
Pretty much the only problem we ran into was the heat! We’d inadvertently planned the shoot for one of the longest, hottest days of the year. Made for some quality sky backdrops though.
Nothing a quick ice cream break didn’t solve!
There was one other small bump in the road, but we found a quick fix. What with it being a bright sunny day, we wanted to use a few ND filters for some shots, but found the ones we’d brought were the wrong size for our lenses! So we just fastened them on with electrical tape. Sorted.
