A recent trend in building design and renovation actually harks back to a much older tradition: making houses and other structures blend in with the landscape so they contribute to the environment instead of detracting from it. Among the modern examples on green buildings are living walls and green roofs, as described in the following article.
Living Walls and Green Roofs Pave Way for Biodiversity in New Building
Under recommendations from the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) for developers, planners and policy-makers, Otters could return to urban rivers, bats could roost under bridges, swifts could flock to office blocks and peregrine falcons soar above cathedrals. Existing examples of encouraging biodiversity in buildings include the Westfield shopping centre in west London and its “living wall” planted with wildflowers, Canary Wharf’s assortment of biodiversity initiatives, and the south London Horniman Museum’s green roof, one of the country’s first.
Carol Williams, the chairwoman of the UKGBC task group of biodiversity and construction industryexperts, said the government’s target for all new homes to be zero carbon by 2016 is changing attitudes in the construction industry. “The construction and property sector has been pilloried in the past for its negative impact on green space, wildlife and habitat – but the industry can actually have a positive influence on ecological value. If we don’t make provision for wildlife now, then we might not be able to attract it retrospectively quite so easily,” she said.
Three Questions
1) What benefits do live-planted roofs and walls have for humans and wildlife?
2) What are some of the structural and economic issues relating to living walls and green roofs?
3) Would you want live plants growing on your house or office building? Why or why not?
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