The sight of a concrete building turning green may strike fear into the hearts of architects or building maintenance managers, but for those at Dutch startup Respyre, it’s a sign of things going exactly to plan.
Auke Bleij (main picture) and team pioneer the use of ‘bioreceptive’ concrete, which they say allows for the abundant growth of moss. With rhizoids instead of roots, moss is non-invasive to building facades, they say, and given its dense leaf system, is of potentially great benefit to urban environments.
Moss converts CO2 to oxygen and absorbs and removes other pollutants from water and air; boosts biodiversity by providing habitat on otherwise bare concrete surfaces; and retains water and cools via evapotranspiration and by shielding the surface from sunlight.
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