Green Facades and Living Walls—A Review Establishing the Classification of Construction Types and Mapping the Benefits
sustainability Review Green Facades and Living Walls—A Review Establishing the Classification of Construction Types and Mapping the Benefits Mina Radi´c 1,* , Marta Brkovi´cDodig 2,3 and Thomas Auer 4,* 1 Independent Scholar, Belgrade 11000, Serbia 2 Faculty VI—Planning Building, Environment, Institute for City and Regional Planning Technical University of Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany 3 Faculty for Construction Management, Architecture Department, Union University Nikola Tesla, Belgrade 11000, Serbia 4 Faculty for Architecture, Technical University of Munich, 80333 München, Germany * Correspondence: minaradic@hotmail.com (M.R.); klima@lrz.tu-muenchen.de (T.A.); Tel.: +381-(0)63-117-2223 (M.R.); +49-(0)89-289-22475 (T.A.) Received: 21 June 2019; Accepted: 16 August 2019; Published: 23 August 2019 Abstract: The green facades and living walls of vertical greenery systems (VGS) are gaining increasing importance as sustainable building design elements because they can improve the environmental impact of a building. The field could benefit from a comprehensive mapping out of VGS types, an improved classification and nomenclature system, and from linking the benefits to a specific construction type. Therefore, this research reviews existing VGS construction types and links associated benefits to them, clearly differentiating empirical from descriptive supporting data. The study adopted a scoping research review used for mapping a specific research field. A systematic literature review based on keywords identified 13 VGS construction types—four types of green facades, nine types of living walls, and ten benefits. Thermal performance, as a benefit of VGS, is the most broadly empirically explored benefit. Yet, further qualitative studies, including human perception of thermal comfort are needed.
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