At Design Week, the material that transforms roofs and walls into anti-climate-change gardens
An innovative “polyurethane foam” that replaces the soil and allows for the growth of plants using rainwater, insulating buildings from heat and cold
CLICCA PER VERSIONE IN ITALIANO
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A “green” plant-based external insulation for buildings. The material that transforms roofs and walls into gardens using rainwater, thermally insulating them and absorbing CO2 arrives in Italy. VIRIdiVITA is a Swiss patent and represents an important contribution to containing of climate change in our cities.
In Italy, VIRIdiVITA will be presented for the first time at Design Week from 15th to 21st April within the Poliuretano-è space in the Materially Pavilion at Superstudio Piu’ in via Tortona 27.
This is an innovative patented civil engineering system which involves the use of sheets of a special flexible expanded polyurethane capable of retaining rainwater and, at the same time, allowing the plants to be fed.
To date, approximately 35,000 m2 of green roofs have already been installed in various cities in Switzerland: Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne.
Green roofs and walls are nothing new, but the use of water-retaining flexible polyurethane foam sheets which, through special additives in the formulation allow plants to live, makes this covering truly unique, lighter, easy to install and maintain with lower costs than other types of vegetal installation.
VIRIdiVITA is the only system that uses the natural cycle of rainwater by retaining it inside a water-retaining polyurethane and gradually releasing it into the environment, making it available to the roots of the plants. Thanks to this accumulation capacity, the need for irrigation of green surfaces decreases, allowing considerable water savings.
The special VIRIdiVITA polyurethane sheets last longer than traditional green roof systems. The easy installation, thanks to the integrated mechanical protective layer, guarantees a longer life to the roof, in particular the waterproofing layer, thus reducing maintenance costs.
This project is the result of the collaboration between VIRIdiVITA and the research and development department of Toscana Gomma, a company of the Olmo Group, one of the largest producers of flexible polyurethane foam in the Italian industry of comfort. Toscana Gomma, on the other hand, specializes in the production of special technical applications and innovative polyurethane products.
Thanks to the use of patented additives and a specially designed and exclusive production technique, it has been possible to generate a material with strong water retention, which at the same time also contains in it the substances that allow plants to live. The initial nourishment present in the material, once exhausted, is integrated through the simple fertilization of the water cycle.
“Excess overbuilding leads to overheating in our cities – declares Urs Sutter, Founder of VIRIdiVITA – Rainwater is discharged too quickly from the roofs and flows only through the sewage system which, due to the increase in climate-change-related phenomena, often gets overloaded easily. Roofs don’t just protect from rain, they can bring social, economic, and environmental benefits. Green roofs and walls, in addition to enhancing the decor of urban spaces, represent a natural way to mitigate the microclimate of urban areas, improve the speed of rainwater flow and contribute to the reduction of air pollution by transforming Co2 into oxygen”.
“Thanks to our research and development department we managed to put into production a polyurethane foam capable of satisfying the technical requests of the VIRIdiVITA project – underlines Filippo De Ruvo, CEO of Toscana Gomma – It was not easy to obtain a lightweight product with adequate fiscal-mechanical properties and a strong water retention, but with a cellular structure that allowed the branching of the roots and that directly contained within the mixture the fertilizer available to feed the plants. We are very happy to collaborate on this project which once again highlights the ability of polyurethane to adapt to many applications that were unthinkable until recently”.
- ViridiVita based in Tuggen in Switzerland in the canton of Schwyz is the company that develops and markets high-tech products oriented towards on-site water retention in different fields of application: roof revitalization, interiors, earth application, facades for noise protection, domestic applications.
- Toscana Gomma is based in Robbio Lomellina (PV), produces continuous flexible polyurethane foams based on polyether and polyester and using moulds. Foams in blocks and rolls and moulded products are mainly used in the automotive, aviation, clothing, and other technical applications sectors.
- Olmo Giuseppe is based in Comun Nuovo (BG), is a point of reference for the production of high quality flexible polyurethane foam, in blocks, sheets and rolls, specialized in the world of comfort and bedding.
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