About Urban Green
Urban Green was started by Bob Tigchelaar, in the mid 70’s in association with Ben Veldhuis, a Dundas area greenhouse grower and early importer of many tropical plant varieties. Ben had a major influence on the growing use of live plants in indoor workplace environments, supplying clients throughout Ontario with plant stock.
In late 1980, Bob turned the sole proprietorship of the business over to his son, Peter, who began to operate it under the name of Urban Green. From the beginning, the idea has been a simple one: to supply quality interior foliage plants, primarily to workplace environments, and to deliver a viable and consistent service of care for them. Over time, the business evolved to include living walls and the associated technology.
Urban Green is now operated by James Cuthbert, who took over the business from Peter in 2018. Peter remains as a valued special consultant and the team now services the Golden Horseshoe and Southwestern Ontario.
Biophilic Design
Our main design philosophy is Biophilic Design. Biophilic Design is the idea of increasing connection to nature within an office or home. This can be done through direct ways (live plants) or indirect ways (preserved moss, wood, stone). Although this is a relatively new term, Biophilic Design can be dated back thousands of years with architecture such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
The term Biophilia was popularized by the US sociobiologist Edward Wilson in the title of his book Biophilia (1984), defining it as an instinctive bond or sense of affinity of human beings with nature.
Urban Green can help at any stage of a building to bring in live plants or preserved moss to add to the Biophilic design of a space.