Vertical Garden in Mumbai

With outdoor humidity at monsoon levels for weeks at a stretch, a live wall's backing sheet and drainage channel are sized for continuous runoff rather than occasional watering, so the wall does not stay damp behind the foliage where algae and root rot start.

Modular planter cells are chosen with a wider gap for airflow than we would specify in a drier inland city, since still, humid air behind a dense wall is what causes fungal spotting, not the rain itself.

Where an artificial wall is the safer call

Older commercial buildings and ground-floor units near the city's mill-era districts often have no water point and a lobby with little natural light, which is exactly where a UV-stable artificial wall works without the upkeep a live wall would need.

On a facade that takes direct salt spray from the sea, we fit stainless or powder-coated fixings rather than plain mild steel, since bare metal pits within a couple of monsoons this close to the coast.

Facades built on reclaimed ground

A live wall on a building near Bandra Kurla Complex or another stretch of reclaimed, low-lying ground sits on a facade that may already carry some dampness from the ground it was built on, so we check the wall's own moisture reading before adding the extra water a live system needs.

Where that check shows existing dampness, we lean toward an artificial wall instead, since adding a second source of moisture to a facade with a known damp history is a risk we would rather avoid than manage after installation.