The green city

All roofs should be painted white. This proposal by Steven Chu, Nobel Prize winner and former US energy minister, caused a sensation. Light surfaces reflect energy from the sun while dark ones absorb it, which in turn contributes to global warming. For years, the scientist was mocked. Today countless researchers are working on surfaces that retract almost all of the sunlight and can even eliminate the need for air-conditioning systems.

An even more sustainable solution is greening roofs. Gardens or even entire parks now exist on many urban buildings. And recycling plays a huge part here. At the Himberg recycling center, for example, construction waste is turned into brick chippings that can retain water and nutrients. And this is then used for greening roofs. In addition to enhancing the optics of the building, this naturally brings an array of other benefits. Green roofs offer protection against the heat and the cold, optimise the climate, bind particulate matter, increase oxygen production and lead to a temperature reduction in cities. What’s more, they extend the lifetime of the roofing and decrease its thermal stress.

While the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, there are now more and more companies like IAT who are planting on more and more roofs and facades. Evergreen climbers on facades provide insulation in winter and protection from the summer heat, as well as from heavy rain and UV rays. The important thing is that the plants are adapted to the environmental conditions. A distinction is made between ground-based plants or those planted on the facade itself. The plants are either grown in beds at the base and climb up. Or they are placed in containers hanging on the facade system itself. The plants then grow horizontally, as if coming out of the wall. The advantage? The facade is immediately transformed into a continuous carpet of vegetation.