Abstract:
Greening the building envelope focusing on green facades with vegetation is a good
example of a new construction practice. Plants and partly growing materials in case
of green wall systems have a number of functions that are benefical for example:
increasing the biodiversity and ecological value, mitigation of urban heat island effect,
outdoor and indoor comfort, insulating properties, improve of air quality and give the
social and psycological well being of city dwellers. This paper discusses an economic
study for: a conventional built up brick facade, a facade greened directly, a facade
greened indirectly (supported by a steel mesh), a facade covered with a green wall
system based on planter boxes and a facade covered with a green wall system based
on felt layers. Beside the environmental benefits of the above described greening
system, it is eventually not clear if these system are sustainable due to the materials
used, maintenance, nutrients and water needed. A life cycle analysis (LCA) is used
to analyze the similarity and differences in the environmental impacts in relation
with benefits estimated for building energy saving(reductiion of electrical energy
used for building cooling and heating) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is used for
the evaluation of the economic sustainability of vertical greening system. It enables
the creation, operation and disposal costs of a selected alternative to be monitored
throughout its life to enable accurate and timely decision making as to how these
costs can minimized.
