Green Wall Systems: A Literature Review

3rd International Sustainable Buildings Symposium (ISBS) -- MAR 15-17, 2017 -- U ARAB EMIRATESWOS: 000449703500008Sustainability today is creating an important and interesting approach combining the architecture and the environment. Such an approach is taking place in different forms and with different degrees of intensity. Within the challenges of energy crisis and climatic changes, architects started to develop new approaches to address the energy demands of buildings. One of these approaches involves green walls. Green walls are self-sufficient walls that are attached to a structure along a building's exterior making room for vegetation growth. During the last decades, several researches were conducted proving that green walls can contribute to enhance and restore the urban environment and improve performance of buildings. The aim of this paper is to review all types of green wall systems in order to identify and systematize their main characteristics and technologies involved, and the main differences between systems in terms of their composition and construction methods used. In this context, this paper focuses on the analysis of the green wall systems, and underlines a number of criteria that should be considered for successful applications in Turkey.Emirates Natl Oil Co, Al Maktoum Fdn, Gazi Univ, British Univ, Turkish Civil Engn Counci

Urban Sustainability: Integrating Ecology in City Design and Planning

Urban sustainability depends on ecosystem services and biodiversity which directly affects quality of urban life. At present, urbanization is having a drastic effect on the way human beings interact with the world around us. Urbanized environments tend to lessen the amount of habitat and increase habitat fragmentation. This important factor stresses the need for sound urban sustainability thinking as well as related urban planning and urban design processes. Adaptive urban knowhow is as the root of this chapter in which a number of exploratory concepts and notions are put forth with the intention of creating dialogue between ecosystem services and human well-being (i.e., through concerted ecological, economic, and social action). The chapter begins with a look at urban sustainability, explores sustainable urban strategies, considers a number of ideas under the umbrella of urban green infrastructure—reviewing a number of case examples—and concludes with background research in properly developing sustainable models and tools. Integrating ecology in city design and planning should support resilience orient development and highlight a synergetic, evolutionary form of multidisciplinary sustainability