Comparison of Shibataea kumasasa and Equisetum hyemale as vertical greenery system for thermal and light shade in student’s architectural design studio in Surabaya

Abstract

Vertical greenery system (VGS) is commonly used for facade shading. It has many advantages in its natural aesthetic, air filter, carbon sequestration, and many more. This research is the continuation of the previous research in 2019, which used Shibataea kumasasa as VGS. It was found that using Shibataea as VGS has reduced the indoor air temperature by 0.5-2°C on average, with 5°C maximum temperature difference. On the other hand, it decreased more light (in range 26-95%), made the illuminance of the room lower than the standard requirement. A studio room should have minimum 5% daylight factor or 500 lux, while on the room measurement, the lowest was 20 lux in the morning hours, the highest was only 200 lux in the afternoon. As an attempt to look for vegetation with better performance, this research uses another bamboo species, Equisetum hyemale to be examined and then being compared to Shibataea. The result is that for the thermal shade, Equisetum performs less effectively than Shibataea. As for light shade, the Shibataea reduces more illuminance than Equisetum, thus makes it a less favorable alternative. The balance of thermal-light effective performance maintained by the leaf area index can be the focus of future research.