Hygrothermal performance of vegetation on cladding and translucent façade systems

Abstract

This report aims on evaluating architectural greening as a passive cooling technique. Two green wall systems have been installed and monitored continuously during summer period in an experimental building. One of these prototypes consists of a freestanding, cladding enclosure, made with modular pre-vegetated panels, while the other façade is a three layered translucent system, forming an extra-flat greenhouse where a creeper plant grows. The translucent façade can be in order to ventilate the building. Both enclosure prototypes were analyzed simultaneously with and without vegetation, in order to describe the plants effects separately from the hygrothermal performance of each system. After the selection of the most representative monitored days, hygrothermal analysis revealed that vegetation cooling effect was higher on the opaque prototype and also suggested that translucent façade mitigated indoor overheating better when its inner layer was not open.