City roofs full of plants, not baking concrete, is a vision being developed by Green Roofs for Healthy Australian Cities. And Brisbane Lord Mayor Cr Newman has expressed an interest in developing six green roof demonstration sites.
Apparently, Australia is about 20 years behind Europe and seven behind the United States in developing and implementing the engineering know-how to make your garden grow above your head. But Australian developers are slowly coming up to speed.
Baz McAlister reports in the Queensland Property and Lifestyle magazine that in a country where the corridors of power nestle beneath luxurious swards of green lawn, you might have imagined that an urban trend of relocating gardens upwards might have developed nationally. But according to Geoff Wilson, founder of Green Roofs For Healthy Australian Cities, this isn’t always the case.
“There’s some good technology these days which allows you a lot of versatility with potted plants on rooftop gardens,” Mr Wilson says, “and there’s been a lot of interest in those here in Brisbane, but not yet in the kind of structured green roofs that we need.”
The benefits of green roofs have been well-documented.Indeed, the casual Brisbanite may have chanced a glance skyward and seen the odd palm peeking from the roof of an apartment block here and there, but what few rooftop gardens we have in the city are radically different from green roofs.
“Rooftop gardens are really mere amenities, whereas a true green roof serves a number of purposes from a sustainability perspective,” Michael O’Brien, principal of O’Brien Sustainability & Environment, says.
Indeed, the benefits of green roofs have been well-documented in Europe and the US, where they have burgeoned.
“The layer of dirt and vegetation on top of the building is an extremely good insulator, which assists in helping to regulate temperature in the building – of course, that may not be as applicable in tall buildings as it is in low-level ones,” Mr O’Brien explains.
“From a stormwater management perspective, you’ve effectively got whatever roof space, times whatever depth of green roof in terms of volume of additional capacity for slowing down and capturing rainwater.”
And with the added filtration capabilities of the soil, he says, the grey water that can be harvested from a green roof is much cleaner than the run-off from a concrete roof or from the street.
Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Campbell Newman and deputy mayor lent their support to Green Roofs For Australia at a conference held in Brisbane in early 2007. At the conference, Cr Newman announced six green roof demonstration sites for Brisbane.
Queensland Property & Lifestyle acting editor Lauren Cameron said Queensland is cottoning on to the benefits of green roofs.
Other features in Queensland Property & Lifestyle include the secret of Southern Queensland, the lowdown on being a landlord and hot property in the top of the State.
Order it online at www.propertylifestyle.com.au
