August 2005

The World Green Roof Congress & Green Roof Week
Basel, Switzerland 2005
by Dr. Stephan Brenneisen  All photos courtesy Stephan Brenneisen

Basel a Green Roof City!
The 1st World Green Roof Congress will be held at the University of Basel in Basel, Switzerland on September 15-16th 2005. The city of Basel is appropriate for the Congress as it is one of the pioneers of governmental promotion and aid as well as research on green roofs.  Already 20% of its flat roofs are greened providing a magnificent variety of green roof examples.  Basel is the ideal place to discuss supporting campaigns, research, further strategies and see green roofs as a new urban green space vision in reality!

Green roofs in Basel - a new vision in the urban sky.  Photo by Pia Zanetti.

The World Green Roof Congress is the Kick Off of a New 1.5 Million Swiss Franc Campaign
The event is organised by the University of Applied Sciences Wädenswil and the Swiss Agency of Green Buildings SFG, together with the International Green Roof Association (IGRA), Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) and the University of Basel.  The city of Basel is convinced about the trendsetting perspective of green roofs, therefore the government of Basel decided to start a new green roof support campaign financed by 1.5 million Swiss francs out of the Energy Saving Fund of Basel.  The 1st World Green Roof Congress will be the official kick off of this new campaign.

More than 40 green roof experts from 12 countries will discuss opportunities, standards and new scientific investigations of ecological constructions with green roofs.  Due to the participation of the European and American green roof organisations the congress will serve as an international platform for the exchange of knowledge and experience between landscape architects, scientists and green roof designers and installers.  Simultaneous translation in English/German is guaranteed.

Green roofs in Norway - landscape visions reaching our cities.  Photo by Monika Brenneisen.

The conference will highlight current thinking and future trends in innovative green roof solutions and research and is intended to help inform current public and private sector decision-making.  The outcomes of the conference will formally feed into a number of European and worldwide research and policy initiatives which support green roof knowledge and markets.  In Basel world famous architects like Herzog & De Meuron as well as Diener + Diener combine their architecture with the ecological design of a green roof on the fifth facade.

Combining green roofs with modern architecture - award winning architects Herzog & De Meuron and the new type of ecological designed green roofs in Basel. Photo by Stephan Brenneisen.

Special Keynote Speakers Program
The keynote speakers of the World Green Roof Congress will provide extraordinary contributions underlining the green roof visions and perspectives of different famous experts of sustainable urban planning:

Premiere of the audio-visual show "The Conflict about Beauty – Aesthetics between Nature and Architecture" for The World Green Roof Congress in Basel by Prof. Dr. Bernd Lötsch, General Director, Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria.

"Whole Life Cost Analysis of Green Roof Systems" by Brad Bamfield, The Solution Organisation, Chair of The Whole Life Cost Forum, UK, concerning the meaning of whole life costs and the relationship between whole life costs and sustainability.  Furthermore, Brad will focus on the integration of capital and revenue costs – is it really possible?

"Biotope City" by Prof. Dr. Helga Fassbinder, Technical University Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Global warming and urban heat islands with consequences for city dwellers have been topical for some time – so why aren’t “Green Cities“ already the norm?

"Earth Houses – Living Under the Ground" by Peter Vetsch, Swiss architect.  Peter Vetsch has built more than 40 earth houses of many different kinds since 1974.  He will tell us about his broad experience of roof greening, using the premise that buildings should be integrated as completely as possible into their surroundings and landscape, and that we should return to nature a good part of what we steal from her when we build.

Earth buildings - living under the ground. Photo by Desair.

Green Roof Week Providing Excursions, Training Courses and Trade Show
The complementary Green Roof Week (12 -17th September 2005) will provide a wide-ranging excursion programme from one to three-day trips, showing examples of good practice on famous green roofs in Switzerland and the surrounding area of Basel.  A specialized Green Roof Course  entitled "Sustainable Strategies for Green Roofs" will be held on two days, and you may take them  either individually or together as follows:

September 14: Theory; and September 17: Practical

The course is about construction-ecologically and focused on the construction of green roofs. The topics are mostly interesting for experts such as architects, planners, horticulture experts, landscape architects, but also for private and employees of environmental agencies and organizations.

The world famous, 90 year-old naturalized green roof "Moos" in Wollishofen, Switzerland, with an orchid meadow.  Photo by Stephan Brenneisen.

Get in touch with green roofs, the new urban vision!
The aims of the World Green Roof Congress and the Green Roof Week are to bring together a wide range of professionals such as architects, planners, landscape designers, environmental consultants, experts from green roof companies, politicians, and more to share good practice experience, research, problem-solving knowledge, and the application of new techniques and tools.

Download the Program PDF here.  See the prices and Register here.  See all the details at www.greenroofcongress.ch.

Dr. Stephan Brenneisen is the Coordinator, World Green Roof Congress and President SFG, Green Roof Competence Centre, University of Applied Sciences Wädenswil.  Stephan may be reached at Hochschule Waedenswil, Fachbereich Naturmanagement, FACHSTELLE DACHBEGRUENUNG, Gruental, Postfach 335, CH- 8820 Waedenswil; Tel ++41 (0)1 789 99 29; Fax ++41 (0)1 789 99 40; email s.brenneisen@hsw.ch.