Green Facades brings benefits to both the environment and to the structure of any construction type. The impact of climate change is intensifying as is the debate of the role of architecture in it. Studies from The Centre for Arquitectural Ecology see the greening of buildings and other structures as a central piece in the response to the challenges posed by climate change. ScienceDirect ascertains that extending the plant or greenery onto the building façade has shown potential in improving air quality and reducing the surface temperature in the built environment.
Here you can see six reasons why you should think about integrating a greening in your architecture project, using the example of the Bentley Bay GreenSolutions project by Jakob Rope Systems.
| Interior building temperature | Sun protection | Interior noise abatement |
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| A greening saves up to 30 % of energy due to evaporation, cooling and shading. | The degree of shading that can be achieved by a plant covering is variable and on a par with technical shading systems. | Research shows that green facades have a high potential to absorb noises. This results in a reduction of noise levels inside the room. |
| Ventilation | Ecological balance | Acceptance |
 |  |  |
| Pre-conditioning of the air and improvement of the air quality. Plants filter dust and CO2 and produce oxygen before the air enters the building. | A plant cover protects the façade from the impact of extreme weather. The longer service life of the material results in a better ecological balance. | Less attractive building parts can be improved or hidden entirely by a greening. Free spaces can benefit from beautification offered by greening. |
Bentley Bay
Two 25-story condominium towers rise into the air like sails on the shore of Biscayne Bay. At one end of the “yacht” is a three-story covered parking garage featuring a three-wall homage to Florida tropics designed by Arquitectonica using Jakob Rope Systems. The green walls provide the initial impact countering the strong horizontal lines of the towers, like stripes on sails.
Arquitectonica created a faux-bamboo effect using white-painted steel pipes arranged in random, varied, and slightly off-vertical placements with pipe braces mimicking the segmented joints of bamboo. Behind the “bamboo”, the green wall rises from the first level of the garage to the roof of the third level in continuous Webnet Wire Mesh. The wire mesh is anchored at the first level and at every intervening level to the roof of the third level. Otherwise, the mesh is free to flex with the breeze to emphasize this living green wall.
With naturally climbing plants rooted at the base of the structure, the three-wall wire mesh (and a portion of the fourth wall) provide a grid that can be easily gripped by the vines as they rise to maturity to create a natural green wall that will allow fresh air to breeze but will offer a subtle green shade on the interior to dampen the harsh Florida sunlight and temperature.
Webnet wire mesh is available in a range of wire rope diameters and with wire mesh diamond apertures of 20mm to 180mm. Each corner of the aperture is secured by a stainless steel sleeve, sized to the chosen wire diameter, this prevents the wires from knotting or crossing over one another at intersections and serves to preserve and enhance the service life of the mesh and is virtually maintenance-free over its life.
If chain link had been used instead of the stainless steel sleeve to sustain the load stresses, it would need to be wrapped and kinked multiple times over the length of every wire, weakening the wire integrity until it ultimately fails under the stress.
Webnet wire mesh and wire rope can be delivered in its natural, stainless steel color, or it can be black anodized or galvanized. It will also accept NCS and RAL colors. Any of the above coating and paint configurations can be specified and delivered ready to assemble. It is UV and weather resistant.
Whilst the climbing plants are still immature benefits can still be observed; the exposed mesh above the plant mass is virtually invisible, the assembly can be done easily and the wire mesh can be attached to virtually any surface that will, itself, bear the load of the lightweight mesh and the plants growing through it. Since the mesh is so flexible, even at the mesh intersections, it can follow the contour of architectural features with near-exacting precision.
The green wall of Webnet wire mesh at the Bentley Bay condominium project is a design, engineering, assembly, and environmental success story.
