Abstract:

Using green walls and roofs mainly in large cities with warm climates has been suggested in order to achieve sustainable solutions that lead to urban development.

As the commercial and academic buildings form a huge percentage of the buildings in cities, investment in these sections would have considerable results.

In the present research, we investigated how improving environmental quality by utilizing the green walls can affect perceived livelihood and productivity in occupants (in the case of the academic environment: students, professors, and other staff) who are exposed to this green environment or moved from conventional to green buildings. Additionally, this work will try to explore gender differences in terms of the built environment and how these differences can affect individuals.

We also analyzed the performance of two different green infrastructures (extensive green roofs and vertical green systems) and evaluated the impact of several greening strategies such as building orientation, solar energy, etc. on buildings' indoor comfort.

These results provide empirical support to use green walls as a sustainable means for restorative design and indicate that green buildings may positively affect the inhabitants’ health in academic and commercial places.

Keywords:

Innovation, technology, research projects, green walls, vertical gardens, sustainability, gender differences.