The complexity that cities are reaching is making us leading to suggest that we must change the way in which we renew, regenerate and rehabilitate the urban space and therefore, everything that is included in it; since rehab of roofs and facades of the most emblematic building up to the last most forgotten street.
The city works in homogeneity from the aspect urban planning, action - consequence, and therefore it must be take global measures in order to strengthen and improve the lives of its inhabitants.
Remember, cities are for people and should be be designed accordingly, but the reality is that we have many factors against such as; the contamination of air, acoustics, the heat island effect…etc.
As a note, we have an article where it has been compiled manuals and guides on green roofs to understand their execution and characteristics.
To try to minimize these effects, there is a initial problem in every city that is evident from the architectural point of view; we already have the imposition of the generated urban structure (buildings, houses, squares, streets, sidewalks….etc), now, we have to determine which are the roads that can help us improve.
As a small introduction I want to leave a video of a short TED talk on rehabilitating a urban architectural element that initially literally "annoyed" and that a priori had no apparent utility.
If we filter further and strip the city of the few green spaces that are normally contemplated (What some designers call it "the green decoration of the city"), that is, squares, some wide streets or the example above from the TED talk.
Actually, we only have the buildings as a base and Useful items to improve cities. the building already built in city is the main architectural element on which action must be taken to benefit cities. So… What benefits does vegetation bring to the citizen in the rehabilitation of the building?... Why the Is urban rehabilitation with plants necessary?
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A new report issued by Arup, Cities Alive (Living cities) breaks down the main keys and benefits that the vegetation has when the «rehabilitation» is practiced green” of the buildings.
The study analyzes five cities around the world (Berlin, London, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Los Angeles) in order to quantify the benefits for different morphologies urban areas, geographies and climatic contexts.
Observing nature can be a source of inspiration, mental regeneration and palpable reduction of stress symptoms. There are different studies confirming that work stress is reduced if we have windows with views of trees or green areas.
A study that was conducted at a Pennsylvania hospital «contacts with nature» on 168 patients. Those who they had views of garden areas their post-recovery The surgical procedure was much faster, as well as the medical discharge that those without views.
Urban spaces and mainly the streets are behave like “cannons – funnels” of noise, it is that is, hard and dense materials, such as concrete, brick, asphalt and glass reflect the sound and increase the generated level.
They have the capacity and potential to reduce both ambient noise, that is, the background sound of a city made of many noises and sources, and the noise of sources emerging, that is, individual, such as motorcycles, sirens…etc.
Depending on the dimensions of the building and street widths, determine patterns of interest on how noise affects according to landscaped facades.
The report shows that:
We no longer only have the color green that brings symptoms of joy or that brings «life», we have a differentiation of the seasonality and time of year in which we live, that is, different shades and shades of colors that are associated with creativity and innovation as well as creating spaces that are not monotonous towards the observer who, as already we know, they create stress.
From an economic and real estate point of view, the buildings located in green areas have rates for sale and higher rent, not to mention in price, and in the same way those that present landscaped roofs and facades.
The green areas implanted in the buildings form small ecosystems where plants, in terms of contaminant filtration, are having a significant impact on cities.
Studies have shown that an infrastructure green with vegetation can reduce volatile fine and ultrafine particles of contamination up to 60%.
From the previous image we can extract that:
The climatic changes that we are experiencing already provide us with storms and rains in short periods of time and intense. A landscaped roof serves as filters, improving the transition between rain discharge and drainage, slows down the process therefore the drainage infrastructures established in the city work best.
In this sense, the rehabilitation of roofs with different techniques that should be considered and established for new construction always a coherent directive.
The impact of certain commonly used materials on the cities like asphalt or concrete that literally absorb heat is the perfect heat island friend, where the buildings and the asphalt give off at night the heat accumulated during the day.
Commonly there is the phenomenon of elevation of the temperature in densely built urban areas caused by a combination of factors such as building, lack of green spaces , gases contaminants…etc . The heat island phenomenon increases with the size of the city and is directly proportional to the size of the "urban sprawl".
The rapid increase in population growth and the urbanization are leading to increased pressure on the land to provide an ecosystem with services that support human well-being and keep the ecological function.
As our cities grow larger, they need more resources, not to mention the impact it has on the biodiversity. Roofs and walls with vegetation help maintain the necessary balance in biodiversity, being that they are associated with greater benefits in human psychological terms of health and well-being.
The roofs and facades with vegetation have the peculiarity of regulating the temperature inside the building as well as oxygenate and improve the ventilation of indoor air in the building that directly benefits the users.
According to the rehabilitation company Arficom … “Although the energy benefits are more tangible in buildings of offices given that they have a higher energy cost, the estimate of energy savings (Heating - air conditioning) in a residential building it can go up to 23% properly using facades and roofs landscaped»
Cities actually have great potential for produce their own food. The urban garden must be a primary objective and the buildings on its roofs have the capacity, for the most part, to be able to house food that does not only benefit the user both in health and economically. It is a collective and social reference point that unites the community more.
