De Groeve, Marie; Kale, Eda; Orr, Scott; De Kock, Tim; (2025) Implications of climbing plants for built heritage: how greening affects the risk of salt weathering. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Congress on the Deterioration and Conservation of Stone. : Paris, France. (In press).

Text Orr_20250613_Paper_StoneConference_MarieDeGroeve.pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 27 November 2025. Download (631kB)

Abstract

Green façades, consisting of plants growing along a vertical surface by either attaching themselves to the surface or using a climbing aid, is increasingly implemented in cities to mitigate the urban environment. Historic buildings, crucial components of the urban environment, are often neglected in this mitigating strategy, despite their cultural and economic values. The vegetation often grows unintentionally on historic buildings and when unmaintained results in a negative image among practitioners. Our research focuses on exploring the co-benefits of green façades on heritage buildings, beneficial for the urban environment and for the material durability, and reshaping the negative image into opportunities for green façades to be considered as a sustainable preventive conservation strategy. This paper highlights the environmental monitoring of a case study in the historic city centre of Antwerp (Belgium). Two years of monitoring could contribute to understanding how green façades can alter the local environment and identifying key factors affecting of the performance of this greening (e.g. season, orientation, plant features). The findings of this paper show that green façades can temper the temperature and relative humidity fluctuations and shield against solar irradiation and precipitation. Given the dominant presence of deciduous green façades during summer, these changes in temperature and relative humidity affect the risk on salt weathering. The presence of green façades can reduce the likelihood of salt crystallisation, with a more pronounced impact on warm façades and dense foliage. This paper offers preliminary insights into the potential benefits of green façades for stone-built heritage and its role as a potential preventive conservation strategy.

Download activity - last month

Export as JSONCSVXML

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Archive Staff Only

View Item