Indoor performances of living wall systems: tools and requirements

Abstract

The benefits of the use of vegetation in indoor environment, and in particular the use of Living Wall Systems (LWSs), are demonstrated by the international scientific literature. Such benefits can be listed as follows: acoustic comfort, indoor air quality and dilution of pollutants, thermo hygrometric comfort, psycho-emotional well-being (improvement of cognitive skills, stress reduction, user satisfaction). During the last years the LWS’ spread is confirmed by the increasing number of building featured by vegetation both on facades and partitioning. Despite their diffusion there is a lack of data concerning the LWS’ indoor performances as well as on properties and featuring about materials and products they are made-up. With regards to outlined constraints the paper deals with a research focused on studies and on an indoor LWS project. Two tools are described: the Indoor LWS’ datasheet and the Indoor Agronomic database. Further a methodological approach concerning the technologies and the materials selection is also illustrated. Such approach was finally adopted in designing and prototyping an advanced indoor LWS. The Indoor LWS’ datasheet was developed in order give to designers and enterprises information concerning the indoor LWS’ featuring with regards to those available on the construction market. Every datasheet was developed on a common format in order to make them comparable. The information refer to: general data (e.g. manufacturing site); technical performances (e.g. size, weight, use of environmentally friendly materials); indoor featuring (e.g. acoustic comfort, air quality and thermo-hygrometric comfort). The Indoor Agronomic database was addressed to select proper species fit for indoor use. The database was divided in two parts: the former provides information about botanical aspects; the latter compares the plant species hygro-thermal comfort to human comfort. Such comparison was carried out by the adoption of bioclimatic Olgyay chart on humidity and temperature data. The effectiveness of mentioned tools was confirmed in further research tasks. The information available were used to define a proper set of technological and agronomical requirements to be included in a new indoor LWS design. Indoor requirements were divided according to LWS life cycle. They were adopted in order to fulfil the largest numbers of indoor environmental goals.