#EcoMonday Contemporary Mediterranean Home With a “Breathing” Eco-Façade

Excerpt from “Freshhomes Design & Architecture”: Travessa de Patrocinio is one of those bohemian places in Lisbon that require a sweet disposition while visiting. The unique collaboration between these three designers, Luís Rebelo de Andrade, Tiago Rebelo de Andrade and Manuel Cachão Tojal, gave birth to a project inspired by minimalism, with an interesting Mediterranean “coverage”. Imagine a thick “coat” of plants shadowing the entire façade of a house that spreads vertically. “Its walls are completely covered with vegetation, creating a vertical garden, filled with around 4500 plants from 25 different Iberian and Mediterranean varieties which occupies 100 square meters. So, short levels of water consumption are guaranteed as well as little gardening challenges.”  Click here to read the rest of the story.

Excerpt from Architizer News: The House in Travessa do Patrocínio by RA\\ ( Luís Rebelo de Andrade, Tiago Rebelo de Andrade, Manuel Cachão Tojal) does just that. The narrow townhouse is situated smack dab in Lisbon, in a neighborhood with little access to green spaces. To compensate for this lack, the architects draped the house with lush green facades that cover 100 square-meters of wall space. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill green building accessory. The facades are integral components to the architecture, not just tacked on for a higher LEED score. They’re planted with approximately 4,500 plants sourced from 25 different local varieties, which  all require little maintenance. The result is a vertical garden that the architects say functions as an urban “lung” within the pavement-heavy area, helping to rid the residential street of excess noise, carbon, and other pollutants floating about. Click here to read the rest of the story.

A Brief History of Green Walls

The concept of green walls is an ancient one, with examples in architectural history
reaching back to the Babylonians – with the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one
of the seven ancient wonders of the world. Highlights of the history of green walls are
provided below:

• 3rd C. BCE to 17th C. AD: Throughout the Mediterranean, Romans train grape vines (Vitis species) on garden trellises and on villa walls. Manors and castles with climbing roses are symbols of secret gardens.
• 1920s: The British and North American garden city movement promote the integration of house and garden through features such as pergolas, trellis structures and self-clinging climbing plants.
• 1988: Introduction of a stainless steel cable system for green facades.
• Early 1990s: Cable and wire-rope net systems and modular trellis panel systems enter the North American marketplace.
• 1993: First major application of a trellis panel system at Universal CityWalk in California.
• 1994: Indoor living wall with bio-filtration system installed in Canada Life Building in Toronto, Canada.
• 2002: The MFO Park, a multi-tiered 300’ long and 50’ high park structure opened in Zurich, Switzerland. The project featured over 1,300 climbing plants.
• 2005: The Japanese federal government sponsored a massive Bio Lung exhibit, the centerpiece of Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan. The wall is comprised of 30 different modular green wall systems available in Japan.
• 2007: Seattle implements the Green Factor, which includes green walls.
• 2007: GRHC launches full day Green Wall Design 101 course; the first on the subject in North America.
• 2008: GRHC launches Green Wall Award of Excellence and Green Wall Research Fund.

Source: GreenScreen

Biofiltration

An ‘active’ living wall is intended to be integrated into a building’s infrastructure and designed to biofilter indoor air and provide thermal regulation. It is a hydroponic system fed by nutrient rich water which is re-circulated from a manifold, located at the top of the wall, and collected in a gutter at the bottom of the fabric wall system. Plant roots are sandwiched between two layers of synthetic fabric that support microbes and a dense root mass. These root microbes remove airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs), while foliage absorbs carbon monoxide and dioxide. The plants’ natural processes produce cool fresh air that is drawn through the system by a fan and then distributed throughout the building. A variation of this concept could be applied to green facade systems as well, and there is potential to apply a hybrid of systems at a large scale.

Source: GreenScreen

Public Benefits of Green Walls

Source: GreenScreen

Private Benefits of Green Walls

Source: GreenScreen

Also Check Out:

• #EcoMonday @FC3ARCHITECTURE – Going Green? We Can help!
• Exclusive #EcoMonday Interview with Architect Bill Reed with host @FrankCunhaIII (Part 1 of 3)
• Exclusive #EcoMonday Interview with Architect Bill Reed with host @FrankCunhaIII (Part 2 of 3)
• Exclusive #EcoMonday Interview with Architect Bill Reed with host @FrankCunhaIII (Part 3 of 3)
• Surf’s Up! #EcoMonday Renewable Clean Wave Power Energy
• What is a High Performance School?
• #EcoMonday @WJMArchitect Recognized for Green Architecture and Design

We would love to hear from you on what you think about this post. We sincerely appreciate all your comments.

If you like this post please share it with friends. And feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss ideas for your next project!

Sincerely,
Frank Cunha III
I Love My Architect – Facebook

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