US fashion retailer Anthropologie, which makes it UK debut on Regent Street on October 23, will unveil a store featuring an internal wall composed of plants.

Anthropologie hydroponic wall, Huntsville, Alabama

Source: Ralph Daily/Flickr

Anthropologie’s store in Huntsville, Alabama already features a hydroponic wall.
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James Smith, director of store design at the Philadelphia-based retailer, said that the three-floor, 22,000 sq ft store will have a “hydroponic plant wall” as its centrepiece —z a system that allows plants to be grown vertically using piped nutrient feeds in place of earth.

The wall, believed to be the first of it kind in a retail environment in the UK, will cover 1,500 sq ft, be 50 ft high and will incorporate 35,000 individual plants, according to Smith.

Anthropologie, a sister brand of Urban Outfitters, has trialled a similar feature on external walls at its store in Huntsville, Alabama, where a 2,000 sq ft vertical garden was completed in January this year.

Merchandising of the store begins this week when the retailer takes control of the building from the shop-fitting contractors.