I saw an interesting talk on Green or Living Roofs at the Futurescape Show down in Surrey yesterday. Dusty Gedge the co-founder of Livingroofs.org and a champion of Green Roofs in the UK, led a great seminar discussing the potential benefits of Green Roofs and emphasising the good work done so far in this country to promote them.

A Green or Living Roof is essentially a roof of a building which has a layer of growing media and plants covering a part or majority of the surface.

Green roofs provide numerous benefits, particularly for towns and cities or any areas with a significant amount of hard landscaping. I have summarised the benefits as follows:

• Heat Reduction. This is particularly important with the continued effects of climate change. The stone, concrete, tarmac and steel of our towns and cities soak up the suns energy and radiate a huge amount of heat. This is why urban areas are often a lot warmer than the surrounding rural areas. As the planet gets hotter and our urban areas get hotter we will face more problems with health, pollution and issues surrounding cooling, as a result. By bringing in more greenery to these built up areas the energy can be soaked up and diffused, naturally cooling the urban environment. The more green the better the effect.

   

• Water. Again climate change is likely to lead to more heavy rain and flash floods. These particularly effect urban areas as the hard landscape is largely impermeable. The only run off for a large influx of water is down into the drainage system which is often out of date or simply not built to deal with the capacity.

   

  Green roofs act as a large sponge soaking up rain water and if built correctly can help to deal with sudden large increases in volume brought about by flash floods. They can also improve water quality as any water drain off that is harvested will have been to some extent purified by the plants and their root system.

   

• Air Quality. We are all aware of the improved air quality trees can provide in our urban areas. Green roofs do the same. The plants can help to filter pollutants as well as generally increase the levels of oxygen in our towns and cities.

   

• Biodiversity. Green roofs can provide a potential habitat for wildlife, often lacking in our urban areas. Birds, butterflies, insects and importantly bees are finding it harder to survive with the urbanisation of the country. Promoting green roofs in these built up areas can provide these creatures with the much needed food and shelter they require to continue to thrive.

   

   

• Other benefits include, sound insulation, protection of water proofing materials, heat insulation and in the case of larger roofs they can be used as a source of local amenity like a park.

Of course, Green Roofs are also attractive. Any building in built up landscape, whether in a large city of a rural area, can benefit from this. My previous blog piece Is Your House Too Hard For Your Garden? (click the link to read) discussed the harmony between the hard vertical and horizontal landscape of the house and the greenery of the garden. What better way of harmonising house and garden then by adding a significant amount of greenery to the house itself.

Dusty and his colleagues have done a huge amount over the last 20 years to bring the Green Roofs and other similar natural design resources to the town planning agenda. A lot of his work concentrates on London which clearly makes sense. Yet I would like to see this kind of environmental feature incorporated into new and existing developments all over the country. Even my local town Northampton could seriously benefit from this.

I would also like to see Green Roofs incorporated in more domestic spaces. Anyone with a roof (they don’t necessarily have to be flat) can gain from the many benefits Green Roofs provide. If implemented along with water harvesting elements such as water butts and by integrating solar panels into the system, our houses and gardens can work together to create a more attractive and sustainable home environment.

If you would like to discuss how to design these elements into your own home, garden or public space please email me on info@robinidesondesign.co.uk or visit my Contact Page (click the link).

For more information on Green and Living Roofs visit Livingroofs.org