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Green buildings & living walls: Proper planning, planting and maintenance
Buildings with living walls or green roofs are an environmentally-friendly option in construction. But how easy is it to create a living facade on an exterior wall? And how can they be maintained in the future? Find out here.
06.12.2024
Overview: Green buildings
- Greening urban buildings by adding living walls or green roofs contributes to biodiversity and cooling
- Urban heat islands can be counteracted with urban greenery
- Strategic planning is important to ensure goals are achieved
- STIHL battery-powered tools are ideal when caring for plants on buildings
In summer, cities can accumulate heat in densely built-up areas creating heat islands. Strategically planted urban greenery is one way of counteracting this effect.
Cities can be made greener by considering not only structural factors during urban planning, but also green spaces (dual internal development).
There often isn't space to create more parks or large green spaces in cities so planting living walls and green roofs on the exterior of buildings is a great way to add pockets of greenery and make a positive climate impact in densely populated urban areas. Greening of buildings is also a good way to promote biodiversity.
One of the critical issues when maintaining greenery on and around buildings is the need to be quiet to avoid disturbing people who are either living or working inside the building. Much of the work is done at height as well so it makes sense to choose lightweight tools for increased flexibility when working. Battery-powered solutions for grounds care have already proven themselves in practice and you can see how they are being used in our case study video below.
Case study: Green buildings
We visited the greenest campus in the Netherlands; Aeres University of Applied Sciences in Almere. We meet architect Marc de Jager, who was responsible for planning the green facade of the building, and Gert Jansen who, with his teams, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the building’s greenery.
Urban greening to combat urban heat islands
How can cities tackle climate change? The fact that heat accumulates in cities means that effective measures are needed to weaken heat islands. Greening of buildings and other urban planting can make a valuable contribution here.
An empirical study carried out by the Technical University of Munich over three years shows that, for cooling to be effective, around 40% of the urban space needs to consist of green areas.
A WHO study has found that city parks have an average cooling impact of 1 degree Celsius, which can have an effective radius of as much as 1 kilometre. But simply planting trees is not enough; though they are indispensable, they can also hinder air flow in the narrow “canyons” of streets in built-up areas. Urban greenery therefore needs to be planned strategically.
How to create a living wall or green roof
Green buildings need to be created on a completely customised basis. Find out how it was done on the Aeres building below.
The greenest campus in the Netherlands is in Almere.
The Aeres building in the Netherlands was not only designed with six trees and 2,000 plants on the roof terrace, but also features vertical greening: 12,000 plants decorate the exterior walls, promote biodiversity and give the building a distinctive character.
Modular system on the outer walls
A modular system was used to green the building within a few days. Planters can easily be clicked into the substructure. This meant that plants could be raised and grown beforehand, and then attached to the exterior walls of the building in spring.
The plants grow in sheets of rock wool.
The type of planting is planned down to the smallest detail. The plant varieties been strategically arranged on the outer wall in such a way that bees are attracted upwards – a “bee ladder” has been created.
All plants grow in plates filled with rock wool. Watering is done via a drip hose – independently controlled by an automatic system. Rainwater collected from the building’s water reservoirs flows to the building’s plants as required.
The solar panels provide shade for the plants.
Strategic planting on the roof
The roof garden is not only home to trees and thousands of plants, but also a pergola with solar panels. These obviously convert sunlight into electrical energy, but also provide shade at the same time.
This has an impact on choice of plants; the planting was adapted to the shady conditions underneath the solar panels.
Flexibility thanks to battery technology
Regular maintenance of green buildings is essential. The professionals in the Netherlands choose battery-powered tools from the STIHL AP System to help them maintain the Aeres building.
The numerous advantages of battery tools make the work more efficient and pleasant. The reduced noise level and emissions-free operation contribute to a positive working environment, as well as causing less annoyance to people in the vicinity.
Another advantage of battery technology is the increased flexibility it offers. As the tools are lighter, professionals are better able to move freely and work in hard-to-reach places. This significantly increases efficiency and precision when maintaining greened buildings.
Gert Jansen is enthusiastic about the performance of the STIHL battery-powered fleet. “We had our doubts at first, but the battery-powered tools turned out to be powerful enough for us to work with all day long” he said.
All in all, battery-powered tools present a future-proof solution for the maintenance of green buildings, not only by making the work of professionals easier, but also by contributing to reduced noise and environmental pollution in urban areas.
Powerful and quiet: STIHL battery-powered tools
Urban greening: Challenges
For successful urban greening there has to be sustainable green space planning. Planners often encounter specific challenges here. What’s needed is a holistic concept tailored to the development of the respective city, so that urban greening can have an optimal impact on climate and biodiversity in urban areas.
The greening of buildings presents many demands.
All technical requirements must be checked and fulfilled in advance for greening of a building’s exterior walls. Among other things, these relate to the tensile load and the anchoring of the planting system.
The greening of roofs can also present similar challenges. The roof ultimately has to be able to withstand the additional load from the building’s greenery, with other critical factors also coming into play, such as the wind upthrust load, fall protection and coordination with other elements such as superstructures and ventilation outlets. Maintenance should also be considered; access to maintain the plants will be required on a regular basis so this will need to be taken into account.
In addition, the winter months can become particularly challenging for building greenery if frost paralyses the irrigation system pipes. In the Aeres building, this has been dealt with by means of a system that automatically dries the pipes before frost hits.
Whilst there are plenty of things that should be considered at the planning stage, creating living walls and green roofs on urban buildings can deliver fantastic benefits for people, animals and the climate.
