Moss wall becomes moss tower

Since April, there are no longer “moss walls” in Brunswick, but “moss towers”. The so-called CityTrees at Rudolfplatz and Hans Sommer Straße were replaced free of charge by Green City Solutions with the advanced, latest product generation. The upgrade is many times more efficient and powerful. A key feature of the development is that significantly more air can be cleaned with significantly less water input. By using air pre-humidification, the mosses can remain vital and highly efficient even under higher stress due to higher air flow. Here, water circulation ensures that excess drops are returned to the cycle, allowing the new CityTrees to clean air of up to 82% of fine dust and cool it by up to four degrees in a more resource-efficient manner.

Turning setbacks into insights

At Green City Solutions, they are working on a solution unlike any other in the world. In the meantime, 8 years of moss research are under their belt. This means that the best moss can be cultivated in a dedicated moss farm and prepared for use in the city. Sensor-based technology that automatically adjusts the best supply of moss to changing conditions is also pioneering work. A living plant is being fused with Internet-of-Things technology. Wherever innovation is pursued, there are always setbacks and necessary improvements. The project in Brunswick did not always go smoothly. There were problems with the remote supply and a companion project with the TU Brunswick could not be completed because the data collection in the old CityTrees was temporarily down. Green City Solutions incorporated these project findings into a two-year research and development project funded by the EU. The goal was to ensure ongoing moss vitality and to be able to prove and certify the effect of the moss filters. All this has been achieved.

Many people, polluted air and no space for urban trees

“For us, the free exchange is a matter of the heart,” says founder and managing director Peter Sänger. “We would like to thank the city of Brunswick for having the courage to test our moss filters. We evaluated the setbacks in the project and incorporated them into the new development. The new CityTrees not only look much changed, they can do more and are reliable fresh air zones in two great locations.”

Like their predecessors, an additional green moss filter is located on a median strip of a busy street and a moss filter is located right next to a bus stop at one of the main traffic intersections in the downtown area. The air is thus cleaned where it is polluted, many people are present and street trees have no place for sustainable, healthy root growth.