Can buildings be climate-active?
The operation of buildings, including the generation of heat and cold and the supply and removal of utilities, places a significant burden on the natural environment. For years, efforts have been made to counteract this. Increasingly restrictive standards are being introduced for building materials and the efficiency of building envelopes.
For years, efforts have been made to counteract this. Increasingly restrictive standards are being introduced for building materials and the efficiency of building envelopes.The operation of buildings, including the generation of heat and cold and the supply and removal of utilities, places a significant burden on the natural environment. For years, efforts have been made to counteract this. Increasingly restrictive standards are being introduced for building materials and the efficiency of building envelopes. A system of ecological certification of buildings has been created, intended to encourage Investors to build facilities with a lower demand for utilities. Promoting public and individual transport not based on the use of fossil fuels. This route seems to be losing popularity owing to a rather schematic methodology which, instead of on a real effect, focuses on effects of a marketing character. Finally, the concept of the passive building and the net-zero-carbon building has been created. In the face of the effects of climate change felt by an ever-growing group of people, are these actions enough? Can one do something more? For years we have been analysing and applying in our own projects technologies and solutions that reduce the impact of buildings on the environment. We have also taken part in building pioneering, experimental solutions. The experience we gained inspired us to look for the possibility of building climate-active buildings.
Vertical Oasis grew out of a need to explore the joining of technology with botany. This prototype project was, from the start, considered for two different locations. One characterised by a high demand for cooling, and a radically different one with a high demand for heat. Obtaining solar energy and converting it into electricity, reducing the building’s demand for cooling and heat, and a facade geometry generating shade where it is most needed: these are the solutions that make up the building’s basic ECO-DNA. The main goal, however, is to change the environment around the building. Combined with the inclusion of the building’s users in the process of that change, thanks to tools enabling the control, management and transformation of the systems, including the “green skin”. Multiplication and the effect of scale make it possible to create larger parts of cities that have a positive effect on the environment.
At the end of this road, a new kind of city emerges, where technology and biotechnology will help to offset the unfavourable impact on the environment that results from people’s natural need to have the place to live that they need and that they are willing to grow fond of.
The vertical garden, located in niches, is based on prototype, multifunctional panels. The technology, developed through an R&D model, is key in the context of influencing the environment in the building’s vicinity. A combination of specially selected plants and microorganisms, supported by building systems and closed-loop strategies, cleans the air of CO2, NOx and PM particles. Natural transpiration processes help to cool and humidify the air. The structure of the chosen plants helps to reduce noise pollution through the absorption and refraction of sound. The “green skin” is also a basic element of the rainwater retention system, serving the area around the building and the neighbourhood. The system, depending on the building’s location, can allow a reduction or complete elimination of the need to connect the building to the local rainwater drainage system. The “green skin” is also a way to increase biodiversity and preserve species threatened with extinction.
