The Idea of a tree for each family on an apartment, is something quite ambitious. When CUMILAB ideated this various questions came to our mind. Questions How could trees adapt here? How much would they grow? What is the supporting layer inside the container? What are the selection criteria of the species? Impact on energy performance of the envelope and the internal spaces?
Name
1 Tree Per Family
Year
2022
Typology
Residential
Location
Pune
The Idea of a tree for each family on an apartment, is something quite ambitious. When CUMILAB ideated this various questions came to our mind. Questions How could trees adapt here? How much would they grow? What is the supporting layer inside the container? What are the selection criteria of the species? Impact on energy performance of the envelope and the internal spaces?
Generally, when a building envelope is given a dedicated space for vegetation and the role to plant one is bestowed upon the owner, the idea remains a concept and a tree or even a shrub is never planted. Hence the idea, here, which the name too suggests, is that one tree, per family is given by the team to an owner of the apartment. So, a planted tree with the help of our design sits on the balcony, which the owner just has to take care of, in terms of watering and fertilizing. This tree is allowed to grow to a length of 3-4m. Hence one family gets a beautiful tree plantation pot and foliage of another tree which grows from the neighbor’s balcony below. Eventually, all the balconies of respective families get a well, green lushed covered balcony space. This way a tree community is born with a building sustainable enough to provide better well-being for all its families.
Plants using solar energy for their transpiration and photosynthesis, thereby reduces the air temperature. Plants absorb sunlight. More accurately, 50% is absorbed and 30% reflected. This helps to create a cooler and more pleasant climate during summertime. For the indoor climate, this means also that 33% less air conditioning is required, which in turn means energy savings. Benefits at an urban scale include Reduction of the Urban Heat Island effect, air temperature mitigation, improved air quality, absorption, Sequestering of Carbon, aesthetic appeal, providing Biodiversity and natural bird habitats. Building scale benefits include heal the benefits, improvement of building energy, efficiency, internal air quality.
Only one m2 of living wall extracts 2.3 kg of CO2 per annum from the air and produces 1.7 kg of oxygen. There have been many studies which prove that plants and the microbes found in soil media absorb harmful VOC’s and convert them into a compound which plants use for food. In recent years, significant improvements have been made to building envelopes generally. They have become more sustainable from an energy point of view, in that they are increasingly better insulated and shaded sometimes, integrated with systems for energy generation. Still Apartment buildings are normally clad in hard surfaced materials that mineralize the urban environment. Accordingly, this intervention represents a different idea of sustainability. 1TF intervenes in the design of mundane apartment buildings and introduces a new level of sustainable facades with the help of tree plantations. The average carbon footprint of every person in India was estimated at 0.56 tons per year. In a vertical vegetation, the plants could significantly improve this air condition. The wall filters particulate matter from the air, converting CO2 into oxygen. The intervention is not only limited to the aesthetics of the building but it contributes to the healthy well-being, environmental well-being as well and creates opportunity to grow Indian Species of trees, shrubs, herbs and flowers, in an area seldom used to do so.
Façades covered with plants are considered positive for sustainability because of the benefits that vegetation brings to the external environment, such as air temperature mitigation, air humidity increase as an effect of evapotranspiration, dust absorption, pollution reduction, BVOC (Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds) production, carbon sequestration. As to the benefits to the internal environment of a building, the vegetation on the façade reduces the cooling load during the warm season, due to reducing solar gain through the envelope. Hence providing building scale benefits like envelope protection, noise reduction and agricultural benefits. The main components of the design are Plants/ Trees, planting media, structures (extension ring) that support and attach plants to the façade and the drainage system
Since 2019
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