New Delft Water Walk
The Green House is located in the Graaf Floriskade street. It is not a ‘greenhouse’ for growing vegetables or flowers, but it is literally a green house! Over 4000 plants are integrated into the front of the house and a special irrigation system provides water and fertilizer. The plants help keep the house cool in summer, they purify the air locally and they attract many beneficial insects. The house is fully electric and with the solar panels on the roof, it is energy-neutral.
The front the Green House has 36 different plant species, which means the facade remains green all year round. This cools the house by 2 – 12 o C. The plants also attract many wild bees, bumblebees, wasp and other insects, especially in the spring when the flowering plants colour the facade. For practical reasons, there are no plants on the back side of the house. The entire house is climate neutral, just like the entire neighbourhood. All the houses are heated and cooled with a groundwater heat pump, connected to a closed water circuit. This circuit consists of two pipes that extend up to 150 m deep into the ground. For more information on how such a system works, click here. And here you can see how many of these systems have already been installed in Delft. Electricity is generated by solar panels on the roofs. These roofs are also green and retain water. More information about the Green House can be found here.
The plants are supplied with water and nutrients by an irrigation system, which is connected to the water supply. This is called an active irrigation system. A few times a year, the facade garden is maintained by a professional company, and dead plants are replaced by new ones. There are also passive irrigation systems, in which, for example, rainwater is collected and distributed over the plants. In the Green Village you can see how this works.
Green Village in the TU district.
In the Green Village, many innovations are being tested, for example, options for sustainable energy, methods for storing water underground in the Waterstraat and measures for lowering the heat stress on the HeatSquare. All these innovations are to help us in adapting to climate change.
