Vertical gardens bring lush, verdant life to even the coldest and barest of surfaces, both indoors and out. These ‘living walls’ increase interior humidity, purify the air and provide a much-needed touch of nature in spare, angular urban spaces like airports, museums and shopping centers. Here are 15 buildings with stunning vertical greenery, from 6-story elevator shafts to subterranean restaurants.

Edificio Consorcio, Santiago, Chile

The Concorcio Building in Santiago, Chile is one of the world’s most eco-friendly office complexes. It uses up to 48% less energy thanks to the vegetation climbing up its exterior walls, which turns red in autumn.

Bardessono Hotel Vertical Tillandsia Garden

Not all vertical gardens even need soil or irrigation at all. This ‘tillandsia’, or ‘air plant’ garden at the Bardessono Hotel in Yountville, California gives the visual effect of ‘floating’ plants by mounting the tillandsia to metal rods which protrude from the copper wall panel.  They simply need to be misted with water from a spray bottle every now and then.

Urban Plant

This architectural design proposal called ‘Urban Plant’ envisions a new way to deal with producing food for urban city dwellers. The tower has hydroponic vegetable gardens and integrated renewable energy systems that reduce energy use and give urbanites a sense of connection with nature amidst all the concrete.

Musée du Quai Branly

Perhaps no one is more well-known for vertical greenery creations than Patrick Blanc, who is responsible for the breathtaking living walls at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. The walls are entirely cloaked in plants, from the sidewalk to the rooftop. Blanc devised a patented system that consists of metal scaffolding and polyamide felt stapled to 10mm-thick plates of expanded PVC. The felt retains the water that seeps down from a drip irrigation system mounted at the top of the wall. The Musée du Quai Branly green wall is made up of 15,000 plants and 150 different species.

Parti Wall

This outdoor installation, created by ten young architecture and design firms for a newly converted loft building in Boston, transforms a blank brick wall into a lush, green environment. Sedum panels were sewn onto a mesh substrate and fastened to cables for a modern, artistic effect. The prototype is meant to illustrate how Boston’s scattered brick surfaces could become opportunities for zero-footprint public art.

The Moss Room Restaurant

The atmosphere at The Moss Room Restaurant in San Francisco is certainly unlike any other. Diners descend into a subterranean room, housed within the Academy of Sciences, that has a unique feature: a wall covered in moss. Designed by Olle Lundberg, the restaurant features a 40-foot living wall that draws moisture from a large water tank in which African jumping fish will reportedly soon live.

Ann Demeulemeester Shop by Mass Studies

The Ann Demeulemeester shop in Seoul, South Korea features undulating living walls made from a geo-textile planted with herbaceous perennials. The verdant look is even carried into the interior of the store. Mass Studies, the Korean architecture firm responsible for the design, wanted to incorporate nature into what can often be cold retail environments.

CaixaForum Museum, Madrid

(images via: juanpg, funksturm)

Patric Blanc designed the beautiful vertical garden on the exterior walls of the CaixaForum Museum in Madrid. More than 15,000 plants from more than 250 species cover an entire side of the historical building, built in 1899. The plants are arranged in such a way that they form a painterly design, with arches of color creating a sense of movement.

Unique Potted Vertical Garden

We’re not sure where in the world this incredibly unique vertical garden is located, but it sure is impressive. They’ve taken a low-tech approach to covering vast white expanses of wall with flowering plants, each one potted and attached to the wall individually. The question is, how do they water them all?

Topiade Façade for Louis Vuitton

(images via: Cube Me)

In an attempt to refresh an aging Louis Vuitton building without a major reconstruction, architects Gregory Polleta and Sung Jang came up with a brilliantly simple solution: covering it in a changeable arrangement of topiaries. The project, ‘Topiade’, uses greenery-covered forms that can be changed regularly for a fresh new look.

Midori no Tobira

Designer Kazuyuki Ishihara created ‘Midori no Tobira’, which means ‘Green Door’, for the 2008 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It’s designed as a Japanese roof garden, for a space that gets a lot of sun and strong winds. Sedum and moss covers nearly every surface, including the walls and roof, giving it a hidden secret garden feel.

Parabienta Green Wall from Shimizu

The ‘wall surface afforestation system’, or ‘parabienta’, was designed by the Shimizu corporation as a lightweight and low-cost way to green up uninteresting exterior surfaces. For about $80 per square foot, a building can be given a whole new look using planted panels of sponge-like polyester-blended soil.

Edouard François ‘Flower Tower’, Paris

Architect Edouard François created the ‘Flower Tower’, a building completely veiled with potted bamboo, in Paris in 1999. The Flower Tower is a residential building bordering a park that has been made to blend in a little better with its lush surroundings. The bright white pots stand out while the bamboo give the residents privacy and a feeling of living in a more rural, natural environment.

Siam Paragon Shopping Center

In another example of Patrick Blanc’s stunning green walls, the Siam Paragon shopping centerin Bangkok Thailand features a lush, rainforest-like cascade of ferns, vines, sedum and moss in various shades of green, yellow, red and purple. The greenery surrounds the building’s 6-story elevator shaft to dazzling effect.

Zurich Airport Hanging Vines

(images via: Land 8 Lounge)

Cascading vines at the Zurich Airport in Switzerland bring in a little exotic color and texture, serving as an art piece encased in frosted glass. The vines, which are various varieties from faraway places like Malaysia, span three stories and soften the building’s spare, angular design.

A new kind of solar panel is on the horizon. It is incredibly small and can be woven into textiles like curtains and roofing materials to create a more energy-efficient home. The organic photovoltaic-laced textiles move to follow the sun and can create about 16,000 watt-hours of electricity or about half of what the average U.S. home uses in a day.

Sheila Kennedy, an architect at design firm Kennedy & Violich, is the leader behind the emerging technology, which the firm integrated into a prototype called Soft House. The Soft House is a prefab home equipped with several large, flexible curtains that soak up the sun’s energy and transform it into electricity.

In its present condition, the Soft House would still have to have another source of electricity – rooftop solar panels or the traditional power grid. The semi-transparent solar curtains are not as efficient as glass-based solar panels, but their ability to mold to any shape and blend with the surroundings is an attractive feature.

The interesting textiles don’t stop at curtains: there are also membrane-like surfaces along the roof and walls that harvest energy and transfer it to the home’s lightweight batteries for storage.

Currently, the Soft House is on display at a design museum in Germany. The emerging technology is still too costly for consumers, but shows an evolution in the way designers think about integrating energy into our homes.

Bouwbedrijf VDM houdt zich bezig met de bouw van het zogenaamde ‘Actief Huis’. Een andere benaming voor dit type woning is ‘energieneutrale woning’ of ‘energie-nul-woning’. Het Actief Huis is een woning zonder schadelijke gassen en met een lagere energierekening. Door middel van warmtepompen, zonneboilers en zonnepanelen voorziet de woning namelijk in haar eigen energiebehoefte. De toepassing van aardwarmte, gekoppeld aan vloerverwarming en vloerkoeling, geeft u het hele jaar door veel wooncomfort.

Iedere VDM-woning is uitermate energiebesparend. Wilt u echter nét een stapje verder gaan? Praat dan eens met VDM over het zogenaamde Actief Huis, ook wel ‘energie-nul-woning’ of ‘energieneutrale woning’ genoemd.

Een extra dikke schil
Een Actief Huis beschikt over extra dikke wanden met daarin luchtdichte en vochtvrije isolatie. De wanden van een Actief Huis houden veel energie vast en zijn extra luchtdicht. Dit zorgt direct voor een lager energieverbruik.

Isolatie van ramen en deuren
Niet alleen de wanden zijn extra geïsoleerd. VDM gebruikt in een Actief Huis namelijk drielaags glas, dat ervoor zorgt dat er veel minder warmte ontglipt. Aan de buitenkant van de woning kan bovendien gekozen worden voor zonwering voor de ramen. Ook de buitendeuren worden door VDM extra geïsoleerd. In plaats van de standaard 54 millimeter bevat een Actief Huis deuren van maar liefst 73 millimeter dik.

Verwarming
Een Actief Huis kan worden uitgevoerd met het standaard verwarmingssysteem van VDM. Maar het kan allemaal nóg zuiniger! Hiervoor wordt een zogenaamde warmtepomp gebruikt. Deze pomp haalt warmte uit de grond en verspreidt deze vervolgens door de gehele woning in de vorm van vloerverwarming. Ook het tapwater dat in de woning wordt gebruikt, wordt door de warmtepomp op temperatuur gebracht.

In order to absorb the maximum quantity of solar radiation, the flooring in the sunspace was covered with dark coloured tiles fixed to a 100mm concrete slab. The 250mm thick wall, separating sunspace from the main structure of the house, has also been painted in a dark colour, making it the main buffer and allowing little radiation to escape from the sunspace due to reflection.

The solar gains received should be utilised to cover required heating loads or should be stored in the thermal mass of the building

In the experimental design we incorporated two measures to fulfil the above criteria. Ventilation ducts to the inner building can be used on demand and if appropriate to bring warmer sunspace air into the rooms inside. The 100mm concrete slab floor and a 250mm concrete wall inside the sunspace area work as storage buffers

Shading to reduce unwanted solar gains is achieved with retractable insulated blinds controlled by a thermostat. The mobile insulation installation allows us to retain energy when there is no more radiation reaching the sunspace during the night. On the other hand it allows us to provide shading when it is required and to make precise adjustments.

Two devices for cooling the sunspace were installed thereby reducing the cooling load of the inner rooms: Ventilation flaps at the top and the bottom of the structure and the retractable shading system. In tandem they form a passive ventilation system.

As shades are lowered from their retracted position, a channel is formed between the glass and the insulation material. The channel, if exposed to sunrays, will heat up and cause convection movement. A ventilation flap at the top end of the channel can be opened to allow this hot air to escape. As it does so, air is drawn into the channel which in turn causes colder air from outside to enter the sunspace through flaps at the bottom of the construction, if these are opened.

The second system consists of a number of ducts that allow warmer air to be ventilated into the inner house. This system is governed by a control system, which monitors the temperature and humidity in the sunspace as well as in the rooms into which the air can be ventilated. If appropriate, flaps will be opened and fans will cause the necessary airflow.

Care was taken in the design of the sunspace so that it will, as far as possible, not obstruct daylight necessary to reach the inner rooms of the house. The shading devices have a highly reflective coating on the bottom side to help to illuminate the inner rooms with diffused day lighting when lowered.

Connecting the main building to the sunspace with air ducts allows the integration of the passive behaviour of the sunspace and responds to solar heating by venting the warm air into the heating and air-conditioning system of the house. Its operational integration is achieved by communication between the control system of the sunspace and other control systems for heating in the house by the building management system.

Convector ventilation: The cooling of the Sunspace during warm weather is facilitated through a convection system, facilitated by creating a channel between the insulated aluminum blinds and the glazed roof in combination with opening flaps on the very bottom and very top of the construction.

Hot vent: On sunny, but cold days, the blinds are rolled up and sun light enters the space. Here it heats the air which begins to move upwards. Ducts that connect the inside of the building with the conservatory are opened by the BMS and the warm air travelS through to the inner rooms, being moved by the convection motion. Cold air from inside the house is brought back to the sunspace at ground floor level, thus creating a circulation of ever warmer air.

Results

Compensating for fluctuations in indoor temperature and using the actual recorded data for the ambient conditions, including the sunspace, the calculations show that, at a permanent indoor temperature of 19°C, the heating load would be 6,560 kWh for the year with a 31.4 % saving over the 9,564 kWh required if the sunspace was not fitted (All figures are gross figures, not taking into account other measures to reduce energy consumption, like active solar and heat pump).

A further 472 kWh was gained from air that was fanned from the sunspace, reducing the heat load to 6,088 kWh and producing a total saving of 36.3%.

It is expected that the figure for fanned air will improve, as software governing the devices has been tuned during the year. Mainly in the first six months of 2005 potential gains were lost, due to inadequate reaction to ambient conditions.

If heating load figures are brought in connection with the size of floor area and three quarters of the sunspace is considered living space (40 m2 / 4 * 3 = 30 m2), then the calculations show an even higher saving potential.

Without Sunspace: Heating load = 9,564 kWh Area = 170 m2 Heating load/m2 = 56.3 kWh/m2

With Sunspace fitted: Heating load = 6,088 kWh Area = 200 m2 Heating load/m2 = 30.44 kWh/m2 Saving on the heating load per m2 = 45.9 %

Conclusion

If constructed with good understanding of the thermodynamics involved, a sunspace can offer a range of benefits. It can be a very comfortable and desirable seasonal living space, whilst making an impressive contribution to the heating of the building and also supplying pre-heated air for internal ventilation. Moreover, it can create a buffer zone between living space and outdoor space that can be utilised for plant growth, whilst providing shading for the house in the summer time, and providing cooling in the summer time through controlled ventilation

However, several considerations need to be observed: the orientation of the sunspace, and good design with considerations for thermodynamics. Gains and losses should be calculated carefully before choosing a type of glass to be installed - translucency and insulation properties are often opposing factors with costs rapidly rising when trying for the ideal. The sunspace must not be heated, it must be possible to isolate the sunspace from the rest of the building, efficient controls must be installed, and the use of venting devices and a retractable blind system are absolutely vital.

Sunspaces are suitable for family homes as much as they are for larger and commercial buildings. The biggest obstacle to the introduction of sunspaces is lack of understanding of the subject of thermodynamics. This applies to the house builder or owner as well as to the industry.

Today many houses are built in Ireland with a conservatory. Many of these structures are great heat-losers, as little attention is paid to fundamental heating properties. This can be changed and, as was demonstrated in the experimental design, can be turned into a factor contributing to energy saving on a substantial scale.

So, not only are new technologies to be considered, it appears that there are also great potential gains in refining our methods of building. We may have to start getting used to the idea that long-standing traditional approaches in all aspects of energy consumption are slipping into the past, and try to look forward to the dawning post-fossil-fuel society.

Sinds eeuwen is bekend dat de invloed van daglicht op de mens groot is. De Grieken en de Romeinen hielden al rekening met daglicht bij het ontwerpen van hun steden en huizen. Het gebruik van natuurlijk licht kan een essentiële, positieve bijdrage leveren aan het goed functioneren van de mens in zijn privé- en werkomgeving.

Verschillende onderzoeken die gedaan zijn door diverse instanties hebben aangetoond dat daglicht de volgende positieve effecten heeft :

1. Welbehagen van de mens neemt toe
2. Reductie van ziekteverzuim
3. Verbetering van leerprestaties
4. Verhoging van verkoop
5. Verbetering productiviteit
6. Reductie van verbruikskosten
7. Reductie van milieu belasting

De lichtopbrengst is voor het belan

grijkste deel afhankelijk van de lichtintensiteit buiten. Een aantal factoren als een heldere of bewolkte hemel, de hoogte van de zon aan de hemel, het jaargetijde speelt hierbij een rol. De beleving van het daglicht binnen is ook afhankelijk van de reflectie van muren, plafond en vloer.

Leveranciers:
www.tubzzz.com
www.velux.nl
www.atlasacomfa.nl/solarspot

Hoe lang kan de slang zijn?
Een standaard aanbevolen slang-lengte is 2 meter of minder voor het beste resultaat. De slang kan tot de gewenste lengte ingekort worden. Besef dat de slang beter niet langer dan 2 meter (voor de 300mm) 3 meter voor de 400mm eenheid of 6 meter voor de 600mm eenheid moet worden.

De maximale lengte is afhankelijk van het aantal bochten dat gebruikt wordt. Hieronder vindt u de maximale lengte van de buis waarbij het lichtverlies door de verlengbuis maximaal 15% is:
Voor de solarspot van Ø 250 mm. een maximale lengte van 10 meter.
Voor de solarspot van Ø 375 mm. een maximale lengte van 14 meter.
Voor de solarspot van Ø 530 mm. een maximale lengte van 20 meter.
Voor de solarspot van Ø 650 mm. een maximale lengte van 25 meter.

Onderzoek

Internationale publicatie lichtbuissystemen

Is het mogelijk de daglichttoetreding via de daglichtspot tijdelijk te blokkeren?

Nee, dat is één van de redenen waarom VELUX afraadt de daglichtspot toe te passen in verblijfsruimten zoals de slaapkamer of de huiskamer.

Zonlicht stimuleert de productie van het voel-je-lekker hormoon serotonine in uw hersenen, dit houdt een depressie buiten de deur

Het Duurzaam Huis: een Nul-energiewoning

Het Duurzaam Huis Leidsche Rijn is een vrijstaande villa, gebouwd als ‘nul-energiewoning’. Het huis heeft een Energie Prestatie Coëfficiënt (EPC) van 0,4. Daarnaast is de woning op moderne en innovatieve wijze ontworpen. De volgende ‘energie’-maatregelen zijn o.a. in het Duurzaam Huis toegepast:

• Gevelisolatie met geëxtrudeerd polystyreen, EPS, oftewel piepschuim.
• Driedubbelglas.
• Vloerverwarming (begane grond) en convectoren (verdieping), aangesloten op de stadsverwarming.
• Gebalanceerde ventilatie met warmteterugwinning.
• 50 m2 zonnepanelen op het dak, die bijna 4.000 kWh per jaar aan elektriciteit leveren (dit dekt een gemiddeld jaarlijks huishoudelijk verbruik).
• Ontwerp en zuidoriëntatie van de woning zorgt ervoor dat zoveel mogelijk gebruik wordt gemaakt van (gratis) zonne-energie. Door de zuidoriëntatie zorgt de zon in de winter voor opwarming van de woonkamer, in de zomer zorgt het grote dakoverstek juist voor schaduw.