Monument protection and facade greening can get along! Many houses from earlier stylistic eras are 'monument protected' historical sites. Either they always had a green facade or one will be restored according to the old model (from a photo or drawing). A first-time greening on a historical building or site can sometimes be problematic.
There is no question that the climate needs to be protected, including by increasing greenery in our cities. But people not only need a good climate, they also need to ‘anchor’ themselves in order to stay mentally healthy. They need something like a ‘home’. This in turn includes places and buildings that create identity, and this is where heritage conservation comes into play. It ensures that such places are preserved, supported and developed.
By its very nature, this ‘preservation of monuments’ is geared towards very long periods of time, and responding to supposedly short-term sensitivities is alien to it. This is why monument conservation does not want to see solar modules on roofs or greenery on walls (for the time being), no matter how urgent the climate issues may be... In terms of greening, nothing works without the ‘monument conservation’ authority.
There are monuments that are protected together with their greenery. This is usually the case if the planting took place during the construction period, as is the case with the 1000-year-old rose at Hildesheim Cathedral. The rose is part of the foundation myth there!
But greenery planted later can also be worthy of protection. One example of this is Goethe's garden house in Weimar, which the ‘Privy Councillor’ acquired, remodelled and provided with trellises for roses, vines and honeysuckle. There are records of this, right up to the purchase of the wooden trellis slats around 1776. Since then, the trellises have been maintained almost without interruption as part of the monument and have been immortalised in countless depictions. I wonder if the greenery would still be on the house if a less famous builder had built it back then?
Many monuments have lost their greenery over the decades because the plants died, maintenance was too costly or because they were deliberately ‘de-greened’. Sometimes it was a caretaker who neglected his duties, and not so rarely a ‘cost controller’ who saw potential savings and had the greenery removed. Often it is also changes of ownership as well as renovation and remodelling measures that lead to the loss of greenery. However, when times and therefore priorities change, there may be a rethink later and a desire to restore the greenery.
Sometimes there are reasons to green old houses that have never had any plants, even if it is only to bring the ‘cold splendour’ of some perfectly renovated listed facades back to life. In such cases, however, the authorities can throw a spanner in the works. Because: since it is a listed building, the view of it must not be obscured...
Some builders shy away from this confrontation and resort to ‘guerrilla’ greening with plants that have supposedly sown themselves, potted plants (without a hole in the pavement) and simple climbing ropes that can be easily removed, etc..
It can be a delicate partial greening, with clematis or annuals. And if a delicate plant crawls up to a protected building, stands up gracefully, holds out its little hand and begs for a thin climbing rope that makes itself almost invisible, hardly anyone will refuse it, not even the most hardened monument conservator.…
Fassadengrün is a commercial supplier of stainless steel wire rope systems in Germany, Europe and overseas. Information about: Which plants are suitable, are climbing aids necessary, should they be made of wood or metal? Here at FassadenGrün you will find all the information you need from a single source.
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