LivingRope: Plants on a rope

How can a facade be greened as quickly and effectively as possible? Vertical greening with climbing structures usually takes six to eight years to achieve full greening, depending on the growth height of the plants. In densely built-up cities, there is also the fact that the ground for planting is often limited by substructure or by sealing. When retrofitting greenery on existing facades, the building's physics specifications and applicable fire protection regulations must be observed. Overall, the greening should be technically implemented in such a way that the effort for irrigation, nutrient supply, and maintenance remains as manageable as possible.

Plants positioned at any height on the rope

The LivingRope system solves all these requirements with a wire rope construction from which planters are suspended and watered fully automatically. LivingRope is installed at just two attachment points. One on the ground. The other is at the uppermost point of the facade. The facade remains untouched. The wire rope thus suspended supports planters from which the greenery grows. Two additional, thin guide ropes, serve for stabilization in storm winds. The planters are positioned at any height on the main rope. This gives a lot of freedom for the design.

For optimal care of the plants, the vessels are filled with a substrate. This provides the root system of the plants with an ideal balance of moisture, aeration and temperature regulation. The substrate is also storm and weather resistant. Irrigation and nutrient supply are automatically triggered and supplied via an integrated hose system.

Sensors monitor the humidity in the planters. If the humidity drops, the irrigation is activated. The water comes from a connected tank that could collect rainwater, for example. Liquid fertilizer is added to the water at controlled intervals. Users can monitor and control all this via an app. It provides information on the humidity and temperature in the planters, as well as the date and amount of the last waterings. If watering is urgently needed, it can be triggered immediately via the app.

Facades, interiors, plant diversity:

• Greening is already present from the first day on the entire height. Vertical greening with construction heights of at least 30 meters is possible.
• Outdoor and indoor applications are possible.
• The number of planters per rope and their distribution in height is freely selectable. Individual vessels can be replaced or supplemented at any time.
• With different plants, flowers and herbs per rope, green structures can be reinvented and designed and staged by the architects.

Installation, anchor points:

• The green area of the cylindrical planters is 3 times higher compared to their projection area, and thus to conventional facade greening.
• No complex attachment to the building structure is necessary. Only two attachment points are used to attach the suspension rope and the two guide ropes.

Care, irrigation, fire protection:

• Pre-cultivation of the planters is done before mounting them on the wire rope structure.
• Closed automated irrigation and fertilization system. Excess water drains from planters and flows back into the storage tank. At temperatures below 5°C, the system drains and automatically switches back on at 10°C.
• The planters are thermally insulated and have a low dead weight. Their size and geometry is freely selectable on request. The coating is according to the color catalog RAL.
• The substrate provides a powerful combination of water – fertilizer – evaporation. This leads to optimal conditions for roots and growth of plants.
• The fire hazard is minimized by variable distances to the building. Fire compartments can be created by freely selecting the distances between the vessels.
• Optionally, a sprinkler system can be integrated.
• Optionally, webcams can be installed for external monitoring of the plants.

Developers:

• Development and engineering: Jakob Rope Systems
• Development and sales partner: duroplant, Seftigen (Switzerland)
• Botany and planting: Fritz & Kaori Wassmann-Takigawa, Siblingen (Switzerland)
• Irrigation technology: Irrigation Reh, Murg (Germany)