DIRTT Environmental Solutions is a Calgary-based interior construction company with strong environmental roots. The spaces it creates use sustainable materials and are designed to be easily reconfigured, significantly reducing the manufacturing, construction and reconfiguration waste of traditional studs-and-drywall construction.

DIRTT also loves to push the design envelope in all ways and directions – including up – and it created a truly authentic green roof for a timber frame structure indoors in its Calgary headquarters. While on a hiking trip to Mt. Assiniboine, in the Canadian Rockies near Banff, Alberta, DIRTT CEO Mogens Smed had been struck by the effects of grizzly bears on the alpine meadows. The bears flip over large swaths of shallow ground cover with their paws, searching for their next meal. Mogens noted how little soil the plants need to survive, often growing over rocks and mountain boulders.

That trip was the inspiration behind Magog Meadows (named for the alpine meadows around Mr. Assiniboine, in the Canadian Rocky Mountains), a series of sloping hexagonal cells that form a unique extensive green roof. Alberta-based Green T Design was contracted to create the essence of the alpine on an indoor, undulating roof with various slopes (up to approximately 6%), highlighting and showcasing the heavy timber structure.

A mixture of sedum mats with native plug plants were used to emulate the low-growing herbs and perennial ground covers that characterize the alpine meadows. Grow lights on timers and an irrigation system help manage plant growth – DIRTT wanted a rooftop meadow, not a jungle – and the Meadows consistently draw rave reviews from clients and visitors who tour the space.