2009 marks the third year of our “Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Design” – download the Press Release here.   Compiled by our Design Editor, Haven Kiers, and I, we presented the Top 10 List on Friday, June 5, 2009 at the 7th Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards and Trade Show in Atlanta, GA.

Our time slot was changed by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities from 9:30 am to 8:00 am, so if you went by an older Agenda, you missed us!

In 2007, we explored “chic sustainability” and looked at examples of trailblazing and trendsetting greenroof design.   Last year, we turned to greenroof industry professionals for inspiration and guidance and asked them to share their top 10 trends of 2008 with us.   Together we chose “The Influence of LEED on Design Professionals = Pushing the Green Envelope,” “Sky High Cool Green Schools,” and “Eco-Communities & Eco-Cities” for the top three spots.

This year, the projects we have chosen all share a similar concept – the desire to improve their surrounding environment.   The focus of the Top 10 Trends of 2009 is on greenroof design as a means to combat problems in our world of the built environment versus nature, and restore sustainability to the eco-system.

I feel the common element running through all the categories this year is the increasing shift in viewing the building not as a single physical element to be manipulated, but holistically – integrating the site, building envelope, and roof with cultural awareness – creating vegetated surfaces in 3-D and truly linking nature to human design.

Without further ado, the

2009 HOT TRENDS in GREENROOF DESIGN:
Top 10 List

10) Client Specific “˜Boutique’ Greenroofs

9)     Design Competitions: Promoting Future Inspiration

8)     Earth-Sheltering for Sustainable Site Design

7)     Master Plans – Greenroofs in Every Corner

6)     Sustainable Stimulus: Green Buildings Creating Green Collar Jobs

5)     LID Strategies: Celebrating Water with Greenroofs, Rain Gardens, Stormwater Catchment & Beyond

4)     Championing the Green Machine: Policy Driven Ecological Development

3)     Healthy, Efficient & Affordable Green Housing

2)     Sky-High Green Living on the Rise: Condos, Townhomes and Lofts
 
1)     “Towers of Power” – Mega Vertical Structures Linking Earth and Sky

As usual, we included built projects, those on the boards, and several which are stunningly conceptual, like “The Lilypad” by Vincent Callebaut, above and below, designed to make us really push  our notion of the possibilities of function and design, and to reprioritize  and rethink our global view of our diminishing natural resources.   Actually, The Lilypad is a “Tower of Power” – Mega Vertical Structures Linking Earth, Sky, and Water!

Missed our presentation?   No problem –  click on  the 2009 PowerPoint here:

You can also view the 2008 and 2007 PowerPoint presentations of the Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Design, and the papers, too.   We’ll be posting the 2009 paper – with hyperlinks to each project in The Greenroof Projects Database –  by the end of the month.

Happy Greening!

~ Linda V.