As Life Moves Indoors, TNGLAB Expands Beyond Green Walls to an AI-Powered Green Infrastructure Platform

Korean green wall firm develops AI linking living walls with HVAC, building automation, and digital twins, plus non-combustible materials for data centers.

YEONSU-GU, INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA, November 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- TNGLAB, a South Korean green wall and planterior (plant-based interior design) company, is expanding from green wall systems into an AI-based green infrastructure platform for buildings that increasingly function as entire cities. The platform is designed to enable large developments to host tens of thousands of living plants that grow autonomously, while helping to manage indoor air quality and measure energy savings through integration with building automation and HVAC systems.

Extreme heat is pushing urban life indoors. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports that 2015 through 2025 were the 11 warmest years on record, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors. Developers are responding with vertical cities, underground districts, and mixed-use complexes, bringing nature inside. In Seoul, the Yongsan International Business District is planned with about 500,000 square meters of green space, equivalent to 100% of its site area, stretching from underground levels to the sky.

“When we started this business eight years ago, we believed a day would come when almost all of life would take place indoors,” said Kim Young-ju, CEO of TNGLAB. “We saw it first in the Middle East, where it is too hot to walk outside, and life happens inside shopping centers. A Dubai mall has had an indoor ski slope since 2005. Now the whole world is heading the same way, and that day has come much sooner than we expected.”

From maintenance burden to building infrastructure

The biggest barrier to indoor greenery at scale has been maintenance. Indoors, water, light, and photosynthesis conditions decide whether plants survive, so living walls have long depended on constant hands-on care, a model that cannot keep up as large buildings move from thousands to tens of thousands of plants.

TNGLAB’s smart green walls already use AIoT-based automated irrigation, which has cut water use by about 80% compared with conventional methods. The AI platform now in development adds three layers:

Autonomous growth management: AI monitors air quality and humidity in planted spaces and automatically maintains optimal conditions for plant growth.

DEW-X: a technology in development that works with HVAC and cooling equipment to recover moisture from the air and deliver it to plants, with the goal of green walls that need no external water supply.

Building systems integration: connections to building automation systems, HVAC, and the digital twin platforms used to run large buildings, enabling remote management from anywhere in the world and reports that quantify energy savings.

The platform also extends TNGLAB’s business model beyond one-time sales to a lifecycle service covering installation, operations and maintenance, and environmental data services. That matters to owners and operators: according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), building operations account for 30% of global final energy consumption and 26% of global energy-related emissions.

“Everyone wants nature indoors, but it couldn’t come in because it was too hard to manage,” Kim said. “So what we are building is no longer a green wall system but a green wall platform, an infrastructure platform. This isn’t simple plant care. It is a system in which nature controls the environment.”

Greening the infrastructure cities depend on

The AI platform is the software half of a two-track strategy. On the hardware side, TNGLAB is developing a non-combustible green wall-finishing material for data centers, power facilities, and other infrastructure that cities need but neighbors often resist. The IEA projects that global data center electricity consumption will more than double, from about 415 terawatt-hours in 2024 to around 945 terawatt-hours by 2030. As data centers move closer to city centers, they add to urban heat. TNGLAB aims to wrap such facilities in living greenery to cool their surroundings and ease their fit into dense neighborhoods.

TNGLAB’s modular smart green walls, which can be installed in as little as one day, have been installed at sites including the Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Center (HMETC) in Rüsselsheim, Germany, and a residential model house in Jeju, South Korea. At Slush 2025 in Helsinki, the company held consultations with European ESG-focused organizations and prospective partners.

In Songdo, Incheon, TNGLAB runs It’s Nature, a café that doubles as a green wall showroom. It opened at Incheon Global Campus in 2023 and added a second location at Yonsei University International Campus in 2025. Guests enjoy healthy food surrounded by plants, while B2B clients use the space as a proof-of-concept site to see the technology at work.

“With life now lived indoors, our vision is to create environments where people can live with nature even inside buildings,” Kim said. “What we pictured when we started this business is becoming reality, and the time to make it happen has arrived sooner than we thought.”

TNGLAB is seeking pilot projects and partnerships with real estate developers, architects, construction companies, building operators, smart building and digital twin solution providers, and data center operators in Korea, the Middle East and Europe.

About TNGLAB
TNGLAB is a South Korean green wall and planterior company that designs, installs, and maintains smart living walls for offices, hotels, commercial spaces, and public facilities. Led by CEO Kim Young-ju, who spent more than 20 years as an interior architecture designer before moving into agriculture and green walls, the company works under the philosophy of “designing air with nature.” TNGLAB supplies modular green walls with AIoT-based automated irrigation and is developing an AI green infrastructure platform for buildings, as well as non-combustible green wall materials for critical urban facilities. The company also creates jobs for people with developmental disabilities, including Green Care Specialist, a plant-care role it developed.

YOUNG JOO KIM
TNGLAB
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