Claims:WE CLAIM THAT:
1. A method to construct green walls comprising and utilizing terracotta pot structure as shown in Figure – 1, consisting of infill masonry module which constructs the wall like a normal masonry unit with provision to grow vegetation on one side, providing a blank surface on the other face and the material used in the making helps to reduces the heat gain.

2. As claimed in Claim – 1 the modules are made of burnt terracotta, a hard, fired clay, brownish-red in color when unglazed and it reduces a building’s thermal conductivity, allowing it to be heated or cooled relatively separate from the outside.

3. As claimed in Claim -1, the design of hollow terracotta pot wall helps green plantings to vertical structures such as walls of buildings and adobe building's ability to avoid temperature fluctuations throughout the day and night even when the outside temperature rises and falls.

4. As claimed in Claim – 1, the terracotta pot modules is designed in two variations consisting infill masonry or a free Standing Lattice as shown in Figure – 1.

5. As claimed in Claim – 1, the design of the terracotta pots on the outer surface provides an opportunity to grow vegetables and promote the concept of home farming using the walls.
, Description:FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND USE OF INVENTION

[0001] This invention relates to the field of Civil engineering more particularly to a design of a building module which consists of hollow terracotta pots for the construction of green walls. The module being hollow reduces the heat gain of the constructed wall by 60% than that of the wall made of fired bricks. This module also provides an opportunity to the user to grow their own vegetables and promote the concept of home farming. This can result in increased sustainable decentralized lifestyle.
PRIOR ART AND PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

[0002] Environmental sustainability is an ideal which is gaining momentum within the construction industry. Engineers are making great strides towards increased environmental sustainability by updating processes, improving designs and selecting greener materials. These changes are a response to the desires of building owners and operators, as well as those who work and dwell within those buildings. Contractors are realizing that higher performing buildings and infrastructure are required in order to remain competitive. Producers of pre-cast concrete construction materials have raised the performance of their product by finding and exploiting niche benefits that are unique to pre-cast concrete construction. These advances have included developing durable finishes, superior insulative properties in multi-wythe wall components, economy with formwork, rapid constructability and many others. However, the industry must address the greenhouse gas emissions associated with Portland cement, and further integrate the benefits of concrete materials into building functions and operation. Maintaining acceptable temperatures in buildings (by heating and cooling) accounts for a large proportion of global energy consumption. Thermal insulation in buildings is an important factor to achieving thermal comfort for its occupants. Insulation reduces unwanted heat loss or gain and can decrease the energy demands of heating and cooling systems.

[0003] Another factor which affects a structure's carbon footprint is its thermal mass. In building design, thermal mass is a property of the mass of a building which enables it to store heat, providing “inertia” against temperature fluctuations. For example, when outside temperatures are fluctuating throughout the day, a large thermal mass within the insulated portion of a house can serve to “flatten out” the daily temperature fluctuations, since the thermal mass will absorb thermal energy when the surroundings are higher in temperature than the mass, and give thermal energy back when the surroundings are cooler, without reaching thermal equilibrium. This is distinct from a material's insulation value, which reduces a building’s thermal conductivity, allowing it to be heated or cooled relatively separate from the outside, or even just retains the occupants' thermal energy longer. Thermal mass is a term well known in the art and helps to describe an adobe building's ability to avoid temperature fluctuations throughout the day and night even when the outside temperature rises and falls.

[0004] The present invention aims to avoid these disadvantages, and is therefore intended to improve the green walls of the kind considered here, particularly in terms of the plantability of plants, while improving their aesthetics. To this end, the invention has for first object a green wall, of the kind comprising a structure consisting of infill masonry module which constructs the wall like a normal masonry unit with provision to grow vegetation on one side, providing a blank surface on the other face. The modules are made of burnt terracotta: a hard, fired clay, brownish-red in color when unglazed the design of hollow terracotta pot wall will fulfill the concepts of green plantings to vertical structures such as walls of buildings.

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION

[0005] Typically green walls and its retaining elements are dense and very thick. Various construction systems and methods have been developed currently to enable and construct green walls with some type of vertical landscape. Most conventional green walls are formed first from a traditional wall (also known as gray wall), almost always a support or metal frame is attached to them; then different types of metal panels, plastic panels, some kind of container, some type of bag and natural or synthetic substrates are placed and fixed to the metal structure so as to accommodate and grow some kind of vegetation, being these bulky and thus expensive.

[0006] It has already been proposed in prior art where, an adobe brick is used in which a composite material made of clay mixed with water and an organic material such as straw or dung. The soil composition typically contains clay and sand. Straw is useful in binding the brick together and allowing the brick to dry evenly, thereby preventing cracking due to uneven shrinkage rates through the brick. Adobe can serve as a significant heat reservoir due to the thermal properties inherent in the massive walls typical in adobe construction. In climates typified by hot days and cool nights, the high thermal mass of adobe averages out the high and low temperatures of the day, moderating the living space temperature. The massive walls require a large and relatively long input of heat from the sun and from the surrounding aft before they warm through to the interior. After the sun sets and the temperature drops, the warm wall will then continue to transfer heat to the interior for several hours due to the time lag effect. Thus, a well-planned adobe wall of the appropriate thickness is very effective at controlling inside temperature through the wide daily fluctuations typical of desert climates, a factor which has contributed to its longevity as a building material. So there exists a need to devise a building structure system which decreases the carbon footprint of both the building materials used to create the structure and the carbon footprint to maintain the comfort of the individuals within that structure.

[0007] The principle objective of the invention is the design of an ecological construction system for buildings with green walls consisting of a terracotta pot made that integrates into a single module the main supporting wall structure and the growing plant system, eliminating the use of all kinds of racks or secondary supporting metal structures, as well as all kinds of panels, modules or containers and their fasteners such as screws, nails, self-drilling screws, bolts or wedges.

[0008] Another objective of the invention is an ecological construction system for buildings with existing gray green walls to prepare part or the entire surface of the facade, as well as enable walls for growing vegetation.

[0009] The further objective, of the invention is, that the module is made of terracotta, providing a sustainable alternative to plastic green wall as the module consists of two major variations according to the way of execution consisting infill masonry or a free Standing Lattice.

[0010] The further objective of the invention is design is that local materials are used including fired clay and coupled with low carbon footprint makes it an attractive alternate solution to the wall construction. The module being hollow reduces the heat gain of the constructed wall by 60% than that of the wall made of fired bricks. This module also provides an opportunity to the user to grow their own vegetables and promote the concept of home farming. This can result in increased sustainable decentralized lifestyle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0011] Along with the fastened urbanization and the advanced industrialization, the ecological problem has become the focus of world's attention. At present, infrastructure construction increases gradually due to the fast and sustainable economy development, thus the conflict between the construction of, e.g., highway, house and soundproof walls and the ecological environment protection becomes increasingly significant because the current walls, such as a middle isolation barrier or side guardrails of highway and infrastructural walls of house, are mostly constructed through cement casting or metal bridge joint, for example. As such, these walls increase ambient temperature and noise, and greening of the walls is difficult and expensive and cannot achieve the desired effect. Therefore, this invention brings forward an ecological wall, for the purposes of heat insulation, sound insulation, greening and environment protection. The design consists of Terracotta pots, it provides an earthen, low-tech, sustainable way of building. It combines the functional and structural aspects of two walls that is masonry wall and green wall into one. This material has the potential to replace the existing green wall building technology completely. Evolved out of earthen pot, the production of this module is labor intensive and not technology intensive. The module being hollow reduces the heat gain of the constructed wall by 60% than that of the wall made of fired bricks. This module also provides an opportunity to the user to grow own vegetables and promote the concept of home farming. This can result in increased sustainable decentralized lifestyle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0012] While the present invention is described herein by way of example, using various embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is neither intended to be limited to the embodiment of drawing or drawings described nor designed to represent the scale of the various components. Further, some components that may form a part of the invention may not be illustrated with specific figures, for ease of illustration, and such omissions do not limit the embodiment outlined in any way. The drawings and detailed description of it are not intended to restrict the invention to the form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention covers all modification/s, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the passive infrared motion detector it and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. The headings are used for organizational purposes only and are not meant to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this specification, the worn "may" be used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning, must).

[0013] Further, the words "an" or "a" mean "at least one” and the worn “plurality “means one or more unless otherwise mentioned. Furthermore, the terminology and phraseology used herein is solely used for descriptive purposes and should not be construed as limiting in scope. Language such as "including," "comprising," "having," "containing," or "involving," and variations thereof, is intended to be broad and encompass the subject matter listed thereafter, equivalents and any additional subject matter not recited, and is not supposed to exclude any other additives, components, integers or steps. Likewise, the term "comprising" is considered synonymous with the terms "including" or "containing" for applicable legal purposes. Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles and the like are included in the specification, solely to provide a context for the present invention.

[0014] In this disclosure, whenever an element or a group of elements is preceded with the transitional phrase "comprising", it is also understood that it contemplates the same element or group of elements with transitional phrases "consisting essentially of, "consisting", "selected from the group comprising”, "including", or "is" preceding the recitation of the element or group of elements and vice versa.

[0015] Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited in its application to the details outlined in the following description or exemplified by the examples. The invention is capable of other embodiments or of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is for description and should not be regarded as limiting.

[0016] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention belongs. Besides, the descriptions, materials, methods and examples are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting. Methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the present invention.

[0017] The present document describes a construction module for Green Wall using terracotta pots which serves the purpose of two walls that masonry wall and green wall. Evolved out of earthen pot, the production of this module is labor intensive and not technology intensive. The module being hollow reduces the heat gain of the constructed wall by 60% than that of the wall made of fired bricks. This module also provides an opportunity to the user to grow own vegetables and promote the concept of home farming. The infill masonry module constructs the wall like a normal masonry unit with provision to grow vegetation on one side, providing a blank surface on the other face. The modules are made of burnt terracotta: a hard, fired clay, brownish-red in color when unglazed.

[0018] Clay, when wet with the proper amount of water, will hold any shape which is given to it. This property is known as plasticity. When clay is wet, water penetrates and wets each individual particle and, if enough water is used, forms a film of moisture around each particle. The clay particles tend to cling to each other and slip upon one another to hold a new position when wet. Different clays vary a great deal in plasticity depending on their geologic composition.
[0019] Here a common clay material is mixed with from five to fifty percent by volume of microscopic, elongated cellulous fibers. It is to be appreciated that other types of elongated fibers, including inorganic, organic, macroscopic or microscopic fibers, may be used. Examples of such other elongated fibers include well-beaten wet peat, sawdust, wood flour, and chemical wood. There are of course a great many different kinds of clay material, resulting from differing geologic conditions. Any one of these materials may be used with the present invention.

[0020] The clay is allowed to harden to the desired wall thickness and the remaining liquid is then poured out. The wet clay article was then placed in a thermo¬ statically controlled kiln at room temperature, with the temperature increasing by 500° F/hour to approximately 1850° F over the course of approximately 3.7 hours. The kiln was then turned off and allowed to cool. When the kiln temperature decreased to approximately 500 °F, after a total of 6 hours from the time the article was first placed in the kiln, the mold was removed from the kiln and was found to be fully hardened with no commercially unacceptable warping, cracking or deformation.
[0021] The system also contemplates not to use any type of plastic container ; the hollow cavities of the integral wall structure are directly filled with the substrates (natural or synthetic), and at the same time are placed the drip irrigation system ducts and in the arrangements of punched sections of that front wall or rear wall the plant growing is performed. The system thus constituted allows the growth of plants and vegetation in green walls for the construction of all types of buildings using a set of polygonal modules integrating the main supporting structure of the building and the structure for growing plants in a single wall structure, reducing and eliminating elements such as the use of metal support structures, retaining panels and elements to fix them, and a considerable reduction in time and cost of construction.

[0022] By way of illustration, the method of the present invention has been used successfully by thoroughly mixing approximately 5 parts of Redart brand clay with 1 part of cellulose fibers which have been well-beaten into an elongated fibrous form. The fibers are evenly and randomly distributed throughout the clay.

[0023] Although the invention has been description with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments as well as the alternative embodiments will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. It is therefore, contemplated that the appended claims will cover all modifications that fall within the true scope of the invention.

FIGURE DESCRIPTION

[0024] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate an exemplary embodiment and together with the description, explain the disclosed embodiment. In the figures, the left and rightmost digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The same numbers are used throughout the figures to reference like features and components. Some embodiments of the system and methods of an embodiment of the present subject matter are now described, by way of example only and concerning the accompanying figures, in which:

[0025] Figure – 1 illustrates the Front View of Infill Masonry Module

[0026] Figure – 2 shows the Perspective View of Infill Masonry Module

[0027] Figure – 3 shows the Rear View of Infill Masonry Module