Improving Thermal Comfort through Vertical Greeneries in Transitional Spaces for the Tropical Climate: A Review

Abstract

This paper reviews the potential of transitional space in
building for improving thermal comfort by using Vertical
Greeneries System (VGS). Transitional space could be defined as
a space that is indirectly occupied, located in between the interior
and exterior environment. This place acts as both buffer spaces
as well as the circulatory routes. In reality, transitional space is
commonly used for communal area in public building and
utilised for domestic purposes in residential building, such as in
balcony. Based on this issue, balcony could be optimised for
replacing the greeneries on the ground level since the
development of infrastructure in the urban areas has
significantly reducing the quantity of green spaces. To overcome
this issue, integrating vertical greeneries in building is a
promising solution although there space is limited. In order to
maximise the VGS performance, multi-layer plant canopy
concept could be introduced. It is believed that multi-layer plant
canopy could improve the thermal quality instead of using single
layer plant canopy.