Covering a building envelope with vegetation provides a solution capable of mitigating the urban heat
island phenomenon and its impact on the energy consumption of buildings. Simulation tools to assess
the efficiency of such a solution are lacking, especially for green walls. The present research aims to offer
a hydrothermal model of green walls and green roofs for implementation in the urban microclimate
simulation software SOLENE-Microclimate. To this end, a fast, efficient coupled heatemass transfer model
has been developed. Simulation results are compared with experimental data obtained from the LEEA
Laboratory in Geneva for three green wall samples. Aside from the level of uncertainty found for the
evapotranspiration calculation, these results confirm that the model accurately characterizes the temperature
evolution of all three prototypes. Results also show good correlation between measured and
simulated temperatures. The model is indeed able to reproduce water stress and characterize various
types of living walls.