Subject: Roof Gardens

From: Paul Osmond <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 04:19:12 -0500

Hello all:

We at the City of Port Phillip (inner suburbs of Melbourne) recently
received a government urban design grant to undertake a research project on
the concept and practicalities of roof gardens in the inner urban context. 

The first stage of the project will involve environmental science,
landscape, horticulture, engineering and architecture students from four
universities, local conservation organisations, and we are looking to
involve local industry and developers as well. The outcomes will include a
lot of research data, a public exhibition of student work, pilot plots and
practical "how to do it" guidelines. Stage 2 will involve fairly large scale
implementation in a new Council-run housing development.

A few research topics for the students which initially come to mind include:

* Structural implications for roofs
* Species selection in general, and with reference to particular conditions
(coastal, drought resistant, shade tolerant where roofs are overshadowed etc.)
* Retrofitting rooftop gardens to existing roofs
* Hydrology - drainage and water balance
* Growing media
* Geotextiles, cells and membranes
* Edible rooftop landscapes (vegetable plots etc.)
* Weed control through appropriate initial species selection
* Aesthetics, urban design and implications for historic buildings
* Insulation properties of roof gardens - implications for energy efficiency
* Quantification of improvements to air quality (interception of particulate
air pollutants, production of oxygen)

..... etc.

Anybody out there with comments, suggestions and best of all, first hand
experience, we would be delighted to hear from you. Before we do anything
else, we are scouring the Internet and other sources to find out what others
have done, to avoid reinventing any wheels and help identify the "gaps"
which will frame the tasks for the students. And, anything which we find out
will be shared over the Net so that others can benefit from our (hopefully)
successes and (inevitably) errors!

Cheers, Paul Osmond

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From: Katherine Waser <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 09:37:04 -0700

Paul, 

You might want to contact the folks at The Urban Agriculture Network (TUAN)
in Washington, D.C. I just published an issue of the Arid Lands Newsletter
on the topic of urban agriculture in drylands, and I found them most
helpful. Their focus is more on the food-growing end of things than on the
architectural end of things, but I bet they would at the very least be able
to provide some leads for you. They are a terrific organization! Here's a
contact address:

Jac Smit
President, Urban Agriculture Network
1711 Lamont St., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20010
Phone: (202) 483-8130
FAX: (202) 986-6732 
E-mail: [email-masked]

I found him quite willing to give information, although he might be a bit
hard to get hold of. Phone contact seems to work better than email.

Also, you might want to take a look at the annotated list of resources on
urban agriculture that I prepared for the urban ag issue of ALN:

http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/ALN42/resources42.html

I spent many hours looking at web sites & pages and this list contains
those I felt were the best sources of information on urban agriculture as a
whole; there are also some books listed. It might provide you with some leads.

Good luck on the project, which sounds most interesting!

Regards,

Katherine Waser

>the concept and practicalities of roof gardens in the inner urban context. 
<snip>

****************************************************************************
Katherine Waser, Editor                    Tel: 520-621-8584
Arid Lands Information Center            Fax: 520-621-3816
The University of Arizona                   E-mail: [email-masked]
1955 E. 6th St.                                 
Tucson, AZ 85719-5224

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From: Katherine Waser <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 09:37:04 -0700

Paul, 

Jac Smit

Regards,

Katherine Waser

<snip>