7 replies to this topic

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Garden or green roof's have been around for years, and it's a wonderful idea for
large cities.
It helps reduce the heat island effect, cuts pollution, lowers the heat that
the buildings a/c units have to fight against and helps capture rain water.
Chicago has been ahead of the curve for many years, but now, New York city
is joining in this common sense approach of "mining" roof-tops.

"Given how valuable space is in New York City, the city’s rooftops are strangely empty.
But a proposal from the city’s planning department could change that by making 1,200 acres of commercial rooftops available for urban farmers to open greenhouses across the city.

City law imposes restrictions on how tall buildings are allowed to be in different areas,
which is one reasons why rooftops stay empty — developers often build to the maximum height
possible. The planning department’s proposal would allow buildings to add rooftop greenhouses
above regular height restrictions.
And according to a study from the Urban Design Lab, that would mean 1,200 acres of empty, flat rooftops would be eligible for green penthouses.
Rooftop greenhouses will be required to incorporate rainwater collection and reuse systems,
which will help the city mitigate the pressure that big rainstorms puts on the sewer system."

http://grist.org/lis...ps-for-farming/

http://explorechicag...een_Roofs_.html
http://www.google.co...PUBMA0&dur=2390

Even if roof's are not veggie gardens but merely planted in grasses or wildflowers,
they help with all the things mentioned above, and can be a resting place and
food source for bees and butterflies.

[omkar1991]

Great post there. A "green roof" definitely is a great idea, especially if you have plants there. Rainwater harvesting is a great idea too. Part of the rainwater could go to the main water supply of the house, and part of it could go to a central pond in the neighborhood, which could be in a garden or something.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

omkar1991, on 28 January 2012 - 03:59 AM, said:

Great post there. A "green roof" definitely is a great idea, especially if you have plants there. Rainwater harvesting is a great idea too. Part of the rainwater could go to the main water supply of the house, and part of it could go to a central pond in the neighborhood, which could be in a garden or something.

Some homeowners may incorporate it, but it's mostly for large cities. It only takes several inches of soil
to accommodate plants, veggies or flowers.
They planted half of a government building in Chicago, for example and the planted side was
50-60% cooler than the asphalt side.
Black asphalt roofs can add a lot of heat to the area, and the a/c units have to work harder=burning
more coal.
If all the major cities in America planted their skyscraper black asphalt roofs, just think of the
emissions we'd save and how much cleaner the air would be.

[mariaandrea]

I think new design homes, office and apartment buildings should all be designed to withstand the strain of rooftop gardens.

And, Brooklyn has been leading the way in NYC for some time now. Here's a couple of rooftop gardens I read about some time ago.

http://www.brooklyngrangefarm.com/

http://rooftopfarms.org/

[jasserEnv]

I personally think that part of the LEEDS certification of buildings should take into account whether or not the rooftop is kept green. In my mind it would certainly encourage more creation of green rooftops on the bigger buildings that attempt to obtain LEEDS certification. Even if it was an area that was off limits to the public and simply had shrubs and grasses growing on it, it would help to improve city air quality while reducing cooling costs in the building and also the heat island effect as was mentioned. If people were allowed in those spaces, it would make for great areas to lower stress levels of the population reducing health care costs.

[omkar1991]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 28 January 2012 - 04:21 AM, said:

Some homeowners may incorporate it, but it's mostly for large cities. It only takes several inches of soil
to accommodate plants, veggies or flowers.
They planted half of a government building in Chicago, for example and the planted side was
50-60% cooler than the asphalt side.
Black asphalt roofs can add a lot of heat to the area, and the a/c units have to work harder=burning
more coal.
If all the major cities in America planted their skyscraper black asphalt roofs, just think of the
emissions we'd save and how much cleaner the air would be.

True, black absorbs more heat. Plus, the plants absorb surrounding carbon dioxide too, so that would definitely make the heat absorption less as compared to asphalt roofs. Indeed, it would be good for the environment around, and for dwindling resources too.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"Those shingles on your roof have nothing better to do than soak up the sun all day long --
why not put them to work in powering your home as solar power producers?
It’s a commonsense concept, and one that Dow Solar (a division of Dow Chemical) has been working on for a while.
But new research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia may go one better, by helping to develop solar shingles that also help to heat your home.

Researchers at the university have produced a prototype of a photovoltaic/thermal system that has demonstrated the
ability to produce warm (25 degrees Celsius, or 77 Fahrenheit) throughout winter. The technology employed by the system was developed by UNSW’s School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Engineering, and will be integrated into roofing panels,
which will then be tested and further developed through the school’s Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Low-Carbon
Living this year."
(Surprising to report something good coming from dow.)

http://www.huffingto..._n_1294849.html

[Sandra Piddock]

It's interesting how many ways a 'green roof' can help the environment. There are a lot of them in our village, where there a number of single storey houses. It gets very hot in the summer, and the green roof helps to offset that, as well as providing somewhere for those in the centre of the village to grow vegetables and herbs. I live in a ground floor apartment, otherwise I'd be right on to this myself.