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april 2004
International Green Roof
Institute, Malmö, Sweden
Publisher's Note: The IGRI
changed its name to better reflect their geographical position, and are now
the Scandinavian Green Roof Institute (SGRI).
Green Roof Demonstration
and Research Center – Developing Further
By Louise Lundberg
In southern Sweden, the city of Malmö has become the home of the
International Green Roof Institute (IGRI). In spite of the fact that
Malmö already has a good reputation as “The City of Parks,” the amount of
green space is not that large after all. This is about to change, as
green roofs are spreading over and beyond Malmö. This is mainly
brought about through the initiative of a very interesting project for
sustainable development.
The Eco Neighbourhood Augustenborg is one of the most far-reaching projects
of adaptation of an older neighbourhood to ecological development in Europe.
It all started in 1998 when the City of Malmö together with MKB, the local
housing estate owners, decided to join up and create a modern Eco
Neighbourhood that would become a role model of sustainable development for
other cities to follow. It was decided that a change had to be made,
socially, economically and ecologically.
One of the bigger problems of the area was the frequent flooding during
heavy rain, which damaged a lot of property in basement businesses and
underground garages. A change to an open storm water management model
with attractive dams and canals and green roofs on the available flat roof
buildings made a big difference.
This is how the unique Botanical Roof Garden of Augustenborg started.
The city’s direct works department owned a small industrial estate in
Augustenborg, with a large expanse of available roof space. It has
since become an attraction, an information centre for green roofs and
sustainable development, and one of Europe’s principle research centres for
green roof technology.
The roof gardens at Augustenborg's Botanical Roof Garden are evolving over
time. One of the main features is the research. Several universities
are involved in the cross-disciplinary research that covers: plant species
and establishment; wildlife; substrate composition; drainage materials; life
expectancy of the roof membrane; noise reduction; energy efficiency of the
buildings; urban hydrology; and water run-off and water quality, as well as
the user’s aspects of a housing area with green roofs and open water canals.
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Sedum Testing
at the Augustenborg Botanical Roof Garden;
Source:
www.ekostaden.se |
Another main feature is information and
education. Malmö University runs a course on “Green Roofs and the
Urban Environment” in collaboration with the International Green Roof
Institute, where the proximity of the roof gardens overhead is a source of
inspiration and deeper knowledge. The gardens are open to the public, and we
take a lot of group visitors on guided tours.
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Bamboo poles
with climbers in autumn colors designed by Monika Gora;
Courtesy Louise Lundberg |
One use of roof gardens, which I think will
be of more and more importance, is for recreation and health.
Intuitively, most people will agree that to spend time in a green natural
environment is soothing to the soul. In the concrete jungles of the city, a
tree, a patch of grass, a park, however small, become a place away from
stress, where we can “charge our batteries.” Now, this is not only
intuitive knowledge, it is also scientific fact. Research shows that people
in hospitals who have a view over a green space recover faster, with less
use of medicines than those facing a city street or a concrete wall.
Similar results have been shown also for healthy people, who stay healthy,
and children, who develop their motor skills and intelligence better in a
stimulating natural environment.
The International Green Roof Institute is now
working to provide inspiration to authorities and builders of hospitals,
homes for elderly, schools etc., to use this knowledge in practice.
Where ground space is not available for green space, use the roofs!
During 2003, one of the roofs at Augustenborg's Botanical Roof Garden has
been dedicated to showing three landscape architects’ visions of how roof
gardens can be used for recreation and rest. Above, Monika Gora
designed a “forest” of climbers on bamboo poles, and a hilly landscape with
meadow grasses and flowers.
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Children in the
herb garden atop the International Green Roof Institute;
Photo courtesy Louise Lundberg |
The herb garden, designed above by Pär
Söderblom, is an example of a wheelchair accessible garden with flowers and
herbs in raised beds that handicapped and elderly can tend for their
pleasure. Two of the new gardens have the pleasant sound of water in them –
in the herb garden in the form of three tiny ponds, and on the other side of
the roof flows a roof version of a Swedish mountain stream! Nob Takei
designed this river valley with lush vegetation that will be completed in
April this year. The stream fills the double function of increasing
circulation and oxygen content in the storm water-delaying pond below the
building, and providing a different approach to the use of decorative roofs!
In my opinion, one very important reason for building green roofs, even
where they are not seen by people, is to provide compensation for the
wildlife habitats that are lost in our ever-more compact cities. When
considering what type of habitat that could contribute the most to
biodiversity, we need to find out what habitats and species are getting
scarce in a particular area. Some habitats, of course, can not be placed on
a roof, but there are, however, many habitats that can quite easily be
replicated on roofs. One such habitat, which is disappearing in many
places, is old industrial sites, railway lines and other dry gravel lands.
These contain a flora and fauna of rare species of plants and often
endangered invertebrates (such as insects, spiders, mollusks), and some bird
species, such as the Black Redstart in Europe. We know quite well what
these species need – well-drained, low nutrient soils, often exposed to the
sun. It sounds a lot like our roof vegetation!
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Drawing of the
Augustenborg Botanical
Roof Garden's Ruderal
Garden, designed by
Mårten Setterblad;
Photo courtesy Louise
Lundberg |
In order to get experience of building and
managing such habitats on roofs and to evaluate their impact on wildlife,
Augustenborg's Botanical Roof Garden has built a “ruderal” plot, which is
designed by Mårten Setterblad to please both animals and plants and be
aesthetically pleasing to humans. We have used locally sourced
gravel materials, hopefully already containing seeds and some insect life.
We will also sow and plant rare species of plants. We will spread the
seeds they produce, in co-operation with the Swedish Society for Nature
Conservation, to other suitable sites in Malmö to help these species
survive.
In the botanical roof garden, we are now looking forward to the spring, and
seeing the new gardens develop. The Green Roof Society and the
Augustenborg's Botanical Roof Garden Non-Profit Organisation are the
International Green Roof Institute's two organisations that support the
botanical roof garden and IGRI’s work to spread knowledge about green roofs
and their benefits.
The Green Roof Society each year awards a green roof project in Scandinavia
which is seen as innovative and furthering the use of green roofs.
This year, the association will choose a winner at the annual meeting in the
end of April 2004.
In June, the Augustenborg's Botanical Roof Garden will hold an official
opening of the new inspiration gardens and the ruderal roof garden.
There will be invited speakers and the prize ceremony for the Scandinavian
Green Roof Award.
New projects are in our minds as well. In terms of research, we are
thinking of exploring moss roofs as an alternative to moss-sedum, that will
require very small or no amounts of added nutrients, and that are very
effective in delaying rainwater. More research on the life expectancy
of the roof membrane is planned, as well as a study of the mutual benefits
when solar panels and green roofs are combined. On the theoretical
side, a student of the course “Green Roofs and the Urban Environment” will
study the development of incentives for green roofs in Germany and Sweden.
The International Green Roof Institute has also taken the initiative of a
health garden study on the roof of an old people’s home that will be built
in Malmö this autumn. Researchers from the rehabilitation gardens at
Alnarp (the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences) will study the
health and well-being of both staff and patients in this home, which will
have a lovely garden, seven stories above the ground!
Louise Lundberg is an ecologist, dedicated
to green roofs. She is the superintendent of the Augustenborg Botanical Roof
Garden, where she manages the establishment, gives guided tours, lectures on
green roofs, and edits the International Green Roof Journal. For more
information, please see
www.greenroof.se, or write to:
louise.lundberg@greenroof.se.
See Linda's related August 2003
Sky Gardens
article on Malmö, Sweden.
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