Percentage Coverage of Tropical Climbing Plants of Green Facade

Green facade (GF) is one of vertical greenery systems used as passive solutions applied on building facade in improving indoor thermal environment and energy efficiency. However, optimum improvement of thermal environment from GF is dependent on the overall foliage coverage established on the system itself. Higher percentage coverage of the foliage is expected to regulate and lessen the heat transfer toward inside environment. Therefore, this study is to investigate the potential of selected tropical climbing plants in establishing foliage coverage on the GF. Three selected tropical species of climbers used on green facade; i.e. Anemopaegma chamberlaynii (AC), Antigonon leptopus (AL), and Quisqualis indica (QI). A small-scale experiment with small scale size of freestanding walls (1.5 m (height) × 1.0 m (width) × 0.15 m (thick)) attached with GFs (modular trellis) and planter boxes at ground were built for this study. Despite small size leaf, AC performed consistently and has the highest percentage coverage throughout the measurement period with average of 86.5 %. The dominant trait of AC which is vigorous and fast growth rate contributed to the dense and almost fully covered the trellis structure of green facade. Higher percentage coverage also estimated to generate an instantaneous effect on thermal environment modification.