The Role of Landscaping on Buildings' Energy Efficiency

Abstract

During the recent years, the number of buildings has been increased with the rapid growth of populations in cities, which cause proliferation in the total energy consumption. It also has negative impacts on the urban environment. Today, one of the challenges of buildings' design is to find some efficient solutions to reduce the energy consumption. For this purpose, different types of construction materials and methods have been applied. Over the past few years, sustainable building design which is an energy and ecologically consciousness approach has gained significant importance in urban design. According to the goals of this term, structural materials are not sufficient enough uniquely. Therefore, new adaption strategies such as placing the vegetation directly on buildings (rooftop garden, green walls and etc.) have become more efficient. In this study, the role of landscaping on energy efficiencies of the buildings has been evaluated. Various methods of integrating plants to the buildings have been analyzed in order to decrease the energy consumption. In addition, the methods have been compared with construction materials from different points of view: the energy consumption, the surface temperatures and energy fluxes out of buildings and their effects on environmental problems. The results obtained from different studies indicate that landscaping has significant role on optimizing energy performance in buildings especially during utility peak demand period. Although, landscaping would require more time and cost initially in contrast with construction materials used in buildings. Within the scope of sustainable design in urban area, it is obvious that using the plants in buildings will have positive impacts resolving the environmental issues and energy saving comparing to non-vegetated buildings.