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Living Walls in Green Buildings
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Living Walls in Green Buildings

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2023) | Viewed by 6514

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Xi Meng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Innovation Institute for Sustainable Maritime Architecture Research and Technology, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao, China
Interests: living wall; phase-change materials; green buildings; relative coating; spray cooling; building energy efficiency

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the acceleration in urbanization, high-density building has become the main theme of urban development; however, the environmental problems derived from urbanization have brought many negative impacts on the production and life of urban residents, especially the scarcity of urban greening resources. The indoor thermal environment and air quality are two critical factors that affect the physical and mental health as well as work performance of residents. In modern society, with the extension of living and working time in indoor environments, the decline in indoor thermal comfort or air quality will bring a series of negative effects on residents’ productivity and quality of life.

The practice of introducing plants into indoor spaces to decorate and beautify the indoor environment has a long history, and the plants introduced into the indoor environment could not only improve the indoor thermal comfort and air quality through their repair and purification capabilities but could also positively impact human physiology and psychology. In addition, the introduction of living wall systems into indoor environments could not only overcome the low space utilization rate of traditional horizontal greening but also improve the efficiency of plants in purifying indoor air by developing active living wall systems.

The main purpose of this Special Issue is to attract world-leading researchers in the area of living walls and green buildings and to share their latest developments.

Prof. Dr. Xi Meng
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • living walls
  • indoor plants
  • plant repair and purification
  • greening resources
  • air quality
  • indoor CO2 reduction
  • building energy efficiency
  • green buildings
  • indoor thermal comfort

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 4941 KiB  
Article
Effects of the Location of Heating Sources on Indoor Air Quality in Rural Buildings of Qingdao (China) in Winter as Determined by Experimental Monitoring
by Xudong Xie, Qianqian Yang, Weijun Gao and Shudi Wang
Buildings 2023, 13(3), 792; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13030792 - 17 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1102
Abstract
In winter, many rural people in the coastal areas of northern China burn coal for both cooking and heating. As a result, the rural population is seriously affected by indoor air pollution. To analyze the influence of the location of heating sources on [...] Read more.
In winter, many rural people in the coastal areas of northern China burn coal for both cooking and heating. As a result, the rural population is seriously affected by indoor air pollution. To analyze the influence of the location of heating sources on the air quality within rural buildings, 60 buildings with coal heating were surveyed and monitored using an Intelligent Built Environmental Monitor for eight days. In addition, four typical rural buildings with different locations of heating sources were selected for a transient analysis. The peak concentration of CO2 was 2869 ppm in House 1 with a coal-fired stove in the living room. The average particulate matter (PM) levels were 89 μg/m3, 150 μg/m3, and 182 μg/m3 for PM 1.0, PM 2.5, and PM 10, respectively, in House 2 where a stove was situated in a room adjacent to the living room. House 3, where stoves were in separate rooms, had PM 1.0, PM 2.5, and PM 10 values of 25 μg/m3, 39 μg/m3, and 49 μg/m3, respectively, and the lowest CO2 concentration (564 ppm) was found in House 4. The data collected showed that the CO2, PM 1.0, PM 2.5, and PM 10 concentrations within Houses 1 and 2 far exceeded the standard for indoor air quality. The findings suggested that coal-fired stoves, as a heating source, should be situated away from the living room and adjacent rooms, and this change would clearly reduce the concentrations of CO2 and particulate matter. Suitable courtyard ventilation was necessary for houses with two or more heating sources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Living Walls in Green Buildings)
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21 pages, 7119 KiB  
Article
An Experimental and Numerical Study of the Winter Outdoor Wind Environment in High-Rise Residential Complexes in a Coastal City in Northern China
by Zhen Peng, Yihua Chen, Wu Deng, Isaac Yu Fat Lun, Naibin Jiang, Gang Lv and Tongyu Zhou
Buildings 2022, 12(11), 2011; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12112011 - 17 Nov 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1462
Abstract
In recent years, residents in high-rise residential complexes (HRCs) in China have been placing an increasing demand on the living quality in HRCs. Particularly, the outdoor wind conditions are garnering more attention; however, few studies on the wind conditions within HRCs with densely [...] Read more.
In recent years, residents in high-rise residential complexes (HRCs) in China have been placing an increasing demand on the living quality in HRCs. Particularly, the outdoor wind conditions are garnering more attention; however, few studies on the wind conditions within HRCs with densely arranged buildings and high plot ratios have been reported. Therefore, this study investigated the relation between the buildings’ layouts in HRCs and their wind conditions and it proposes optimization strategies to enhance body comfort in their outdoor environments. The research methods in this work involved field surveys, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, and field monitoring. The field surveys were used to determine the types of activities undertaken by the residents in the selected HRCs and their perceptions of the wind conditions within the HRCs. Field monitoring was primarily conducted to measure the present wind conditions in the HRCs. The CFD simulations were performed to analyze the interactions between individual buildings and the wind as well as the performance of the wind conditions in the HRCs before and after a building layout optimization. The simulation results and monitoring data showed that the present wind conditions in the HRCs were uncomfortable due to high wind speeds (exceeding 5 m/s) and large windless areas. To achieve a comfortable outdoor wind environment, future HRCs should adopt a point-to-point building layout and the buildings should be oriented south. Moreover, the ratios of the height to width (Hb/Wb) for individual buildings should be kept at approximately 1.33. For existing HRCs, landscape walls, trees, and moveable windbreak panels can be used to reduce the wind speeds, especially in open exit/entrance areas and windward areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Living Walls in Green Buildings)
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12 pages, 3787 KiB  
Article
Effect of Lighting Environment on the CO2 Concentration Reduction Efficiency of Plants by a Model Experiment
by Nan Ding, Fudan Liu, Xiaoling Ding, Lianyu Yan and Xi Meng
Buildings 2022, 12(11), 1848; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12111848 - 02 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2812
Abstract
Plants have the potential to reduce CO2 concentration, but their photosynthesis is directly influenced by the indoor lighting environment. As a result, the efficiency of indoor plants is limited by indoor lighting environment. In order to explore the effect of lighting environments [...] Read more.
Plants have the potential to reduce CO2 concentration, but their photosynthesis is directly influenced by the indoor lighting environment. As a result, the efficiency of indoor plants is limited by indoor lighting environment. In order to explore the effect of lighting environments on the reduction of indoor CO2 concentration by indoor plants, three representative lighting environments were constructed, including a natural lighting environment, a poor lighting environment and an all-day lighting environment, while five common plants were selected to be planted in five transparent sealed chambers. Experimental results show that the lighting environment affected the CO2 concentration largely in transparent sealed chambers. Compared to the transparent sealed chamber without plants, the highest and average CO2 concentrations were increased by from 47.9% to 160.9% and from 21.6% to 132.4% in the poor lighting environment, respectively, while they decreased by from 60.4% to 84.6% and from 71.4% to 89.7% in the all-day lighting environment. This indicated that plants did not purify the indoor air consistently. Among the selected plants, the most suitable houseplant was Scindapsus aureus, followed by Chlorophytum comosum and Bambusa multiplex. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Living Walls in Green Buildings)
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