MosSkin: A moss-based lightweight building system

A low cost and lightweight moss envelope system for buildings has been developed to address the problem of the lack of greening in densely urbanized areas. Several moss species have been sampled in the wild, selected, based on their ability to tolerate the abiotic stresses of urban environments, cultivated in controlled conditions and tested for their growth capacity on different (building) materials. Five of these showed the most promising results in terms of growth speed and coverage, proving the most suitable for the development of the greening system: Homalothecium sericeum, Barbula unguiculata, Pseudoleskea incurvata, Grimmia pulvinata and Hypnum cupressiforme. An in vitro growing method was also set up for large scale moss cultivation and application. A modular multi-layer panel, with a built-in irrigation system, has been developed, designed and tested. MosSkin is a low-cost low maintenance, versatile and lightweight system, with interesting performances in terms of water management and surface temperature reduction (up to 14 °C).