The green facade is popular in contemporary architecture and urban development. Designing green facades by combining living plants and building facades materializes the idea of using ‘nature’ to help cities reduce the impact on global challenges such as climate change and loss of biodiversity. Green facades have been adopted by different practitioners, not least architects and urban planners, as well as several researchers, both as a physical object and as an idea. However, the narratives accompanying the green facades seem to be inevitably positive and loaded with unsubstantiated expectations of green facades ensuring a significant contribution to resilient and sustainable green urban development. This Ph.D. thesis offers new insights and knowledge about how green facades are understood and practiced in contemporary urban development, and helps qualify potentials and challenges of cities change towards a greener future.