Gardens of Babylon
“We dream of grass, grass near by the house, of green, green grass” – goes the popular song. But these words may be paraphrased – the grass now grows not only by the house but also on the roof. Green roofs have gained popularity in many countries and become part and parcel of eco-buildings. Sometimes real gardens are created on the roofs, where you can relax in the shade of trees, but most often only grass is planted. Such a lawn has a practical rather than aesthetic value – it creates a special microclimate in and around the building, thus protecting the environment.
Life on Earth is impossible without plants which provide people with oxygen, absorbing carbon dioxide. They also perform the most important aesthetic function adorning our houses and cities. Every year people are becoming more and more conscious of the importance of nature protection which is most often associated with plants. No wonder that the new trend in architecture is called green development and plants on the roofs have become one of its main features. Undoubtedly, these buildings are not always green; nevertheless creation of such roofs is becoming more widely spread. Verandahs, terraces and balconies have always been used in building construction, especially in southern regions, where they are planted with indigenous species. Such constructions allow people to be outdoors and at home at the same time, they provide the same level of comfort as inside the house. It is obvious that in cities people’s wish to be closer to nature results in active exploitation of roofs. No wonder that penthouses and terraced apartments are so popular nowadays. To make the time spent there more enjoyable these spaces are turned into real parks with the only distinction that trees and plants grow in tubs or other special containers.
In ancient times roofs were used to make gardens with a made soil layer in which decorative trees, bushes and flowers were planted. Such gardens had various names – hanging or terraced. Take the Gardens of Semiramis for instance (circa 600 BC) – one of the wonders of the world. People in Scandinavia, Finland and European Russia insulated their houses in the past by covering them with pieces of moss and turf. Luxurious gardens delighted the eye on the roofs of the villa Medici in Florence, the palace in Mantua, Carlsberg castle in Sweden. In Russia there were hanging gardens in the Moscow Kremlin, the Winter palace in St Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo.
At the 1867 world exhibition in Paris German engineer Carl Rabitz (the inventor of the well-known chain-wire) presented a landscape garden on a flat roof. It gave birth to the concept of ‘green roof’ and ‘walkable roof’, i.e. the roofs on which you can relax and even have a walk like in a garden. Such roofs are called intensive; their construction demands require higher structural reliability of the building and the roof itself, water isolation, the soil quality, etc.
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Text Valentina Kazakova