Outdoor living wall systems in a developing economy: A prospect for supplementary urban food production?

Green wall systems have greatly advanced over the past few decades and hold important potential for the future in light of predicted urban population growth, densification, and climate change. This article provides a brief background to living walls, followed by a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the four types of systems that are currently available in South Africa. It makes use of a case study review of three recently implemented edible living walls in Gauteng to reflect on the challenges currently experienced and the future potential benefits, with specific focus on system resilience, economic feasibility, and edible plant possibilities. Interviews were conducted with clients and client representatives, contractors and/or designers on each project. The findings suggest that living walls have indirect commercial value through customer experience and satisfaction, as well as educational value. Should the scale, economic feasibility and resilience of living wall systems be enhanced, they can improve urban food production. The article concludes that this could be achieved in the Global South by using simplistic technologies with lower cost living wall infrastructure systems. When deployed on a large scale, with climate-tolerant indigenous and edible plants in exterior systems, productivity will be improved.

The Synergy of Living and Water Wall in Indoor Environment—Case Study in City of Brno, Czech Republic

The indoor environment that surrounds us and the elements in it affect not only our mood but also the air quality. Vegetation elements are currently more popular, especially for their aesthetic value but also because of the fact that they affect the physical parameters of the indoor environment such as temperature and humidity. Water elements are a similar example. The presented paper combines these two elements to achieve the best possible level of thermal comfort. Experimental verification of the influence of the living wall on air temperature and humidity took place during the heating season in the city of Brno in the space of the university, while three scenarios were created: the effect of the living wall in a semi-open space, an enclosed space, and a space with a water wall with regulated water temperature. The potential of the water wall is determined based on experimental verification in laboratory conditions. The results show that the synergy of the living and water wall in the indoor space may eliminate the risk of too-low humidity during the heating season.

The Impact of Indoor Living Wall System on Air Quality: A Comparative Monitoring Test in Building Corridors

Living wall systems have been widely recognized as one of the promising approaches for building applications due to their aesthetic value and ecological benefits. Compared with outdoor living wall systems, indoor living wall systems (ILWS) play a more vital role in indoor air quality. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of ILWS on indoor air quality. In an office building, two parallel corridors were selected as comparative groups. A 10.6 m2 ILWS was installed on the sidewall of the west corridor while the east corridor was empty. Some important parameters, including indoor air temperature, relative humidity, concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), and particulate matter (PM) were obtained based on the actual environment monitoring. According to the statistical analysis of the data, there were significant differences in the concentrations of CO2 and PMs in the corridors with and without ILWS, which indicated that CO2 and PM2.5 removal rate ranged from 12% to 17% and 8% to 14%, respectively. The temperature difference is quite small (0.13 °C on average), while relative humidity slightly increased by 3.1–6.4% with the presence of the ILWS.

Integration of Safety Aspects in the Maintenance Work of a Living Wall: An Overview of Practice and Challenges

Building maintenance is crucial to prolong a building's lifespan. Conducting the maintenance work can be dangerous, especially if it involves high-rise areas such as walls and roofs. Most literature discusses safety aspects at the construction site, while the safety aspects of maintenance work, which occur after occupancy, received less attention. This paper discusses the potential of integrating safety aspects into the maintenance work of a living wall. Living wall system (LWS) is one of the green design aspects in which the wall is designed to allow for vegetation growth. Maintenance works of a living wall involve various risks especially working in high or difficult places. This paper reviews the maintenance process and techniques adapted for maintaining the living wall through literature. This paper presents the safety practices that have the potential to reduce the risks of conducting maintenance work on the living wall and its potential challenges. It is hoped that this paper raises further awareness that work safety in construction is not only enclosed within the construction site and its vicinity, but safety should also be considered post-occupation, especially when the design demands specific maintenance requirements such as a living wall. Keywords: Safety, building maintenance, living wall, maintenance risk, green wall