Nature Preserved - The Ultimate Guide to Preserved Plants

This week, the Journal of Biophilic Design is excited to announce the launch of our latest monograph, Nature Preserved: The Definitive Guide to Preserved Plants, written by Edgardo Rossi, known in the industry as The Green Man. The book takes a close look at preserved plants not simply as beautiful botanical material, but as a serious medium within interior and biophilic design. For Edgardo, the starting point is: go to the space before choosing the plants.

His experience has taught him that the material is rarely the real problem. The problem is often the project. A beautiful render can make almost anything look possible, but a designer needs to understand what the building is actually asking of the vegetation. Where does the sunlight fall? Where are the heat zones? What is the humidity doing? Where are the air-conditioning vents? Where will people touch, brush past or knock into the installation? How will the space behave throughout the year?

“You cannot use any plant in any space,” Edgardo explains. His own experience—including a challenging hotel project in Milan—taught him that plant selection has to respond to conditions rather than hope that the material will somehow adapt.

This is also why he is careful not to position preserved plants as a replacement for living plants. If a space can genuinely support living vegetation, with the light, water, care and ownership model required to keep it healthy, then living plants should be used. The problem begins when living plants are forced into environments that cannot sustain them without constant intervention.

Edgardo calls this “anti-forcing” rather than anti-living plants. Preserved plants have a particular role: bringing real botanical material into spaces where living vegetation would become difficult, wasteful or operationally burdensome. Deep interiors, difficult-access areas, ceilings, columns and other challenging locations can sometimes benefit from this approach. And, importantly, preserved plants can coexist with living plants within the same project.

But perhaps the most important part of Edgardo’s work lies behind the greenery.

The Green Lock System begins where plant preservation ends. Preserved botanical material arrives as an ingredient; the designer still has to build something with it.

Edgardo’s approach considers the complete assembly: preserved plants, a bio-based carrier and bio-based adhesive where required. His system uses expanded cork as the carrier, with the botanical mater