Investigating the influence of green infrastructure on demountable building performance (GC16000)

What was it all about?

The addition of green infrastructure to a building – such as the installation of green roofs and green walls – has many potential benefits, including reducing the impact of heat (and subsequently reducing air conditioning costs) and improving the health and wellbeing of those using the building.

This short project in the Hort Frontiers Green Cities Fund sought to understand the benefits of deploying green infrastructure to temporary building structures in particular. It was suggested that the addition of green building elements to such demountable structures could be a worthwhile endeavour to improve building performance, including through mitigating external temperature fluctuations and noise variability, while also improving aesthetic characteristics and even serving as a source of food production.

To this end, the project focused on a demountable structure in the Brisbane CBD. The project team conducted pre- and post-installation surveys of employees, microclimate data and acoustics.

The initial results were positive, including that the installation of green infrastructure worked to reduce the amount of heat from outside going inside the building. The work also verified that a number of plants were able to grow in the shallow inorganic systems that were used, both vertically and horizontally.

While further investigations were to continue after the conclusion of this particular investment, this initial work has provided the first stepping stone for the building industry to consider the appropriateness and viability of using green infrastructure to improve demountable building performance. The project team noted that potential benefits are not only limited to the construction industry, but could also span temporary accommodations, school buildings, post-disaster accommodations and community facilities.