Green curtains, also known as living walls or vertical gardens, are installations of plants grown vertically on structures. They can provide many benefits for homes and businesses such as improving air quality, providing insulation, reducing noise, enhancing aesthetics, and more. This article will explore the numerous advantages that green curtains offer.
Improving Indoor Air Quality
One of the main benefits of green curtains is their ability to improve indoor air quality. Plants naturally filter pollutants and carbon dioxide from the air through their leaves and root systems. Some pollutants that indoor plants can remove include benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene. These pollutants come from sources like furniture, carpeting, cleaning products, and even tap water.
NASA research has found that certain houseplants are particularly effective at purifying indoor air. Some top air-purifying plants for green walls and curtains include:
| Plant | Key Purifying Properties |
|---|---|
| Peace lily | Removes acetone, trichloroethylene, and benzene |
| Chinese evergreen | Removes benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene |
| English ivy | Removes formaldehyde and benzene |
| Boston fern | Removes formaldehyde and xylene |
| Snake plant | Removes benzene, trichloroethylene, and formaldehyde |
Having these plants on green curtains can significantly improve indoor air quality by reducing the concentrations of these harmful pollutants. Their air purification abilities can help create healthier indoor environments.
Regulating Humidity
Another benefit of green curtains is that they can help regulate humidity levels indoors. Plants release moisture into the air through transpiration. This can increase humidity in dry indoor environments. Proper humidity levels between 30-50% can have benefits like reducing illnesses caused by dry air and minimizing static electricity.
Conversely, green curtains can also absorb excess moisture from the air when humidity is too high. Therefore, they act as natural humidifiers and dehumidifiers to maintain optimal humidity for human health and comfort. Keeping indoor humidity regulated with plants can reduce issues like dry skin, respiratory illnesses, and even furniture damage.
Providing Thermal Insulation
Green curtains offer an added layer of insulation for buildings which can reduce heating and cooling costs. Foliage acts as a thermal barrier by trapping air in leaves and stems. This decreases the loss of interior heat in winter and the penetration of exterior heat in summer.
According to some estimates, adding vegetation to building walls can reduce wall temperatures by up to 36°F. The evaporative cooling effects of plants also keeps them from heating up excessively in full sun. Incorporating a lush green curtain helps maintain comfortable temperatures indoors year-round with less reliance on HVAC systems.
Reducing Noise
Acting as sound buffers, green curtains can dampen outside noise by up to half their total leaf area. Leaves, branches, soil, and roots absorb acoustic energy instead of reflecting it like hard surfaces. Plant cell structures scatter sound waves to diffuse noise pollution from sources like traffic, construction, and loud neighbors.
Denser foliage with rough leaf surfaces tend to work best for reducing noise. Some great green curtain plants to block sound include ferns, philodendrons, pothos, monstera, ivy, palms, and bamboo. Strategically placing green curtains by windows, walkways, patios, and other noise entry points can create quieter interiors.
Enhancing Aesthetics
Unlike bare walls, green curtains provide natural beauty with pleasing colors, textures, and life. They bring organic elegance to indoor and outdoor spaces. You can create living art pieces and graceful architecture with artistically arranged plants. Greenery softens hard surfaces and adds visual interest with flowing leaves, hanging vines, and garden vistas.
Design flexibility is a key aesthetic advantage of green curtains. You can customize sizes, shapes, plant selections, color palettes, and configurations. Horizontal or vertical installations are possible on walls, pillars, fences, facades, and more. Creative planters and frames further the decorative possibilities. Using green curtains to enhance aesthetics can increase relaxation, joy, and biophilia.
Supporting Biodiversity
As urban green infrastructure, green curtains help nurture biodiversity in built environments. They provide habitats with food, water, shelter, and breeding grounds for various organisms. Bird, butterfly, insect, and other urban wildlife populations benefit from green curtain vegetation and connectivity.
Carefully chosen native plants support local species best. Biodiverse green curtains also cycle nutrients, purify water, buffer weather, clean air, and pollinate plants through interacting organisms. They create healthier urban ecosystems that are more livable for all forms of life. Developing rich, vibrant living walls fosters sustainable and regenerative cityscapes.
Filtering Rainwater
During rainstorms, green curtains allow rainwater to trickle through the soil and plant roots. This biofiltration process removes contaminants and prevents polluted runoff into waterways compared to impervious building surfaces. Cleaner rainwater can then collect in tanks for reuse in landscape irrigation, toilets, laundry, and more to conserve water.
Plants also slow, absorb, and evapotranspirate raindrops to reduce stormwater volumes. Acting as living sponges, green curtains mitigate localized flooding and strain on drainage infrastructure. Water filtered sustainably by green curtain systems avoids waste and pollution while enhancing precipitation reuse possibilities.
Stabilizing Structures
In comparison to bare substrates, green curtains add a protective plant cover that helps weatherproof and stabilize wall structures. Plants shield surfaces from temperature extremes, ultraviolet radiation, and driving rain or snow that can degrade materials. Root systems also fortify structures by filling cracks and crevices.
Vines like ivy adhere directly to surfaces with tiny root hairs or sticky pads. This creates a reinforced matrix that strengthens facades and prevents moisture penetration issues. The additional plant load is minimal and readily supported by properly installed frames. Overall, green curtains boost durability, resilience, and longevity of vertical structures.
Boosting Health & Wellbeing
Human health and wellbeing can be enhanced by green curtains through several mechanisms. Purified indoor air, comfortable humidity and temperature, calming natural views, noise reduction, and biodiverse habitats provided by living walls all contribute holistic health benefits.
Studies show that being around plants improves concentration, productivity, mood, emotions, and healing. Hospital patients with views of nature have shorter stays, less pain, and fewer complications. The bio-restorative effects of green curtains can boost vitality and amplify healing processes. Abundant indoor plants also encourage more active lifestyles and time spent outdoors.
Increasing Property Values
Properties outfitted with lush green curtains tend to have higher rental, occupancy, and resale values. Tenants are often willing to pay more for biophilic spaces with beautiful living walls that increase comfort, happiness, and prestige. Such spaces also attract residents, businesses, and buyers more quickly.
One study found rental rates increased by 7% for commercial buildings with greenery systems. For single and multi-family homes, green curtains can boost property value by 4-15% on average according to appraisers. The return on investment from green curtain installation and maintenance can be well worth the upgrade.
Saving Energy
Green curtains conserve energy in buildings by providing insulation, cooling through evapotranspiration, and shade from the sun’s rays. Less reliance on HVAC systems cuts electricity bills and emissions from power generation. High vegetation coverage on building envelopes can reduce cooling loads by up to 33% in warm climates.
In colder seasons, the air cavity and low thermal conductivity of green curtains help retain interior heat. Well-positioned green walls prevent overheating indoor spaces from excessive direct sunlight exposure in summer. Overall, the energy-saving qualities of green curtains lower costs and environmental impacts year-round.
Conclusion
Installing green curtains offers numerous health, aesthetic, environmental, economic, and technical benefits. They purify air, stabilize humidity, insulate buildings, dampen sound, beautify architecture, support urban wildlife, filter rainwater, strengthen structures, uplift wellbeing, boost property values, and conserve energy. Integrating living walls into more buildings can create greener, smarter, more sustainable indoor and outdoor spaces for everyone to enjoy. With proper design and maintenance, green curtains provide value for homeowners, businesses, the public, and the planet.
