Put Plants on Buildings

Recently, I have seen a building in central park in Sydney. This building is surrounding by many kinds of plants. It looks like in a forest. Every side of wall is full of plants. After I have seen this building, I think that it may a great design for sustainable cities.

With the rapidly increasing process of urbanization, more and more people live into urban areas. Because the land in urban areas is limited, there is not much land for government to build parks, gardens or lawns. The green cover rate will be decrease under this situation. But, this building gives us an idea that we can put plants into buildings.

There are several advantages of putting plants into buildings. Firstly, it saves the land in urban area. The increasing number of population in urban area requires more dwellings in urban area. Thus, the green will be decrease. This design for buildings can solve this problem perfectly. Secondly, in the past, plants only cover the land in low level of city. The tall buildings bring many problems such like urban heat island effect and photochemical pollution. Putting plants on the wall of tall buildings can reduce generation of harmful emissions and decrease the temperature in high level of city. Finally, it raises the green cover rate in urban areas. The more greens in urban cities, the more CO₂ emissions will be absorbed from atmosphere.

Although some opponents argue that the irrigation system for these plants will cost a lot and it is dangerous to put solid on high level, the benefits of this design cannot be ignored. The plants on the buildings can also contribute to solve climate change problem. In addition, everyone likes to live or work in a great environment which is surrounded by greens. It can reduce pressure on urbanite.

To sum up, every coin has two sides. We cannot ignore the benefits of this design brings compared with its disadvantages. In light of this, I think that this design should be encouraged to use in other buildings. The buildings which use this design will be more sustainable and environment friendly in urban areas. 

Reference:
1. Falkenbach, H., Lindholm, A. and Schleich, H. (2010), Environmental sustainability: drivers for the real estate investor. Journal of Real Estate Literature, 18: 203-223. 
2. Fuerst, F. (2009), Building momentum: an analysis of investment trends in LEED and Energy Star-certified properties. Journal of Retail and Leisure Property, 8(4): 285-297.