User:Emma Bec/sandbox/Green scaffolding

Green Scaffolding is a sustainable building design concept that can increase the functionality and value of new/old buildings in developing/developed nations, or rural/ urban locations. As a structure, it is similar to a space frame which, in effect, adds an exterior layer to a building envelope. It can serve many sustainable development purposes such as future proofing, eco-retrofitting, increasing urban ecology or bioregional restoration (below). The generic green scaffolding concepts can be easily adapted for local needs and climatic, contextual, ecological and structural conditions. Like space frames but aesthetically pleasing, they are low in embodied energy, materials and production waste.

Green scaffolding can be designed to suit any urban context, be pre-fabricated in portable components and be easily adapted to changing needs. There are many applications such as being part or all of building façades, being a free-standing structure in a park or above a street, or being used in combination with fences or landscape features. As part of a façade, there are many possible arrangements, such as being attached to the interior or exterior of walls or an integral part of the façade structure itself. They can be used in conjunction with large urban buildings or small domestic structures.

Efficiency functions
Green scaffolding provides a framework for any combination of a wide number of passive and/or natural systems. It can increase building efficiency at low cost. For example, it can be integrated with photovoltaic panels, passive solar energy or ventilation systems, light-weight vertical wind generators, light tubes, light shelves and/or mirrors for daylighting, solar stacks for natural ventilation, vertical composters, wetlands or algae fuel production systems, gabion walls or Trombe walls (behind glass) for heat storage. In the latter case, heat is collected and stored on a sun-facing facade can be ducted with solar fans to shaded sides of the building.

Eco-retrofitting functions
The retrofitting of cities is a sustainability imperative due to their huge and systemic impacts. Green scaffolding is particularly suited for retrofitting buildings in need of structural upgrading, modernizing or adapting to changing functional requirements. It can prolong the life span of existing buildings while providing climate control functions and added user amenities. Green scaffolding can also reduce the urban heat island effect and prevent or mitigate damage from earthquakes, fires, floods or storms. If a disaster occurs, it can increase resource security for survivors by providing direct access to food, water, energy and shelter in several kinds of emergencies.

Ecological functions
Green scaffolding is also suited to ‘eco-positive retrofitting’, renovating to support nature as well as social needs/values. It can form a kind of multi-functional ‘ecological envelope’ around buildings or parts thereof. It provides a framework for ‘design for eco-services’, which integrates natural functions with urban structures for symbiotic benefits. For example, it can support substantial soil and plants to clean urban air, treat water in vertical wetlands and accommodate vertical/horizontal nature corridors. The modules created can house biodiversity incubators for small endangered species for the eventual ecological restoration of the bioregions (eg. bird and small animal nests, pollinators, bee hives).

Large buildings
Some large urban buildings have had complete facades replaced, often with new curtain glass walls, just to increase the building’s rental value. Curtain glass walls have many negative environmental impacts, such as increasing the urban heat island effect and glare, wasting energy or even dropping glass (due to contraction and expansion of supporting structures). Green scaffolding, at least at levels below strong wind loads (roughly 8 stories), could create aesthetic interest and add public benefits like noise and pollution reduction on the streets below. The design can facilitate safe maintenance and window cleaning, additional earthquake bracing and integrated fire escapes.

Eco-logical design is necessarily site specific. The scaffolding concept allows for myriad variations to suit the unique conditions in new or old buildings. It should not add to the cost in new construction, prolonging the life of older buildings is an environmental and financial benefit in itself. The cost of retrofitting with green scaffolding can also be subsidized in various ways. Planners could allow green scaffolding above sidewalks in business districts, or in legislated setbacks, to provide a financial incentive for increasing urban eco-services. Also, scaffolding that supports adequate environmental functions could be allowed to contain decks, greenhouses, or balconies.

Wall integrated
The Green Space Wall is where the scaffolding forms the building wall structure itself. It combines ecological space with the building envelope. The building as a whole can therefore be modular, so it can contract or expand in size or even be deconstructed and moved. The wall is composed of modules with glass or other surfaces as appropriate to the location, function and context of each module. Depending on their location and orientation, the modules can insulate, store and circulate heat and coolness, produce clean energy, air, water and soil, and/or support ecosystem functions or habitats for endangered ecosystems.

The ecological spaces provide a range of functions and micro-habitats to house mini-gardens, butterfly breeding spaces, ant or termite farms, frog or reptile sanctuaries and small endangered species. In schools or public buildings, for example, green space walls can act as ‘living wallpaper’, or displays to increase environmental awareness, education and research. The modules with terrariums or aquariums can be maintained by students or naturalist groups (eg. horticulture, herpetology or entomology societies). They can be made accessible from the interior, or exterior in case of nests. If the micro-climate does not prove ideal, exhibits can be transferred to other modules.

Historic buildings
Many historic buildings are not permitted to modify their façades, yet may need earthquake proofing or other structural improvements, and/or need more functional interiors such as flexible open-plan spaces to accommodate changing office cultures and activities. Interior green scaffolding could reinforce and renovate the structure while, for example, providing an interior atrium with an eco-productive vertical landscape. Light and air can be brought in using skylights and/or light shelves where not visible, as on the roof. In one design, for example, the light from a special ‘green chandelier’ designed to reflect light to plants in the interior green scaffold structure.

Domestic structures
Domestic versions of green scaffolding can support many cost-saving functions like passive solar or renewable energy systems. Among many possible functions, the modules can provide indoor clothes drying areas, food production, water cleaning and storage from the roof collection system, indoor daylighting using integrated light shelves, sleeping areas for pets, thermal and sound insulation, air ventilation, passive and/or renewable energy systems, and earthquake and cyclone protection (using cables) and so on. Each vertical module can have different functions (screened by greenery if appropriate). They can also be combined with carports, roofs or garden structures like gazebos, fences or landscaping structures.

The green scaffolding concept is particularly suited to developing nations. It can be constructed with bamboo and wire, and easily erected by individuals or community groups. It can be structurally attached to mud bricks (with wires through the wall) to reduce risks from earthquakes or even mild floods (eg. providing a cross-braced structure supporting a vertical evacuation refuge). The scaffolding can be on the inside to provide practical functions like shelves and bunks. However, scaffolding on the outside would support necessities like food production, water treatment and storage. Insulation using scrap plastic could create a double skin, for added insulation.