A new living green roof designed for biodiversity now adorns a scoial housing block in the heart of London's Soho District.
Kemp House owned and managed by CityWestHomes last week completed the first stage of greening the flat roofs off their buiding stock. Kemp House built in the sixties sits beside the hustle and bustle of Berwick St. Market - the pulsing heart of Soho. The building consists of two storey buildings with a large tower block perched in the middle. Residents living in Kemp House can now look down on a new 100m2 green roof designed by the green roof specialists The Green Roof Consultancy.
The green roof will serve several purposes help to cool the office space below and store rain water. However the real reason for the green roof and how it has been designed is to meet the City of Westminster and London's Biodiversity Action Plan targets, creating habitat for the rare black redstart and open mosaic habitat invertebrate species.
Due to weight constraints a unique approach was taken. Although sedum blanket finishes are not recommended habita mitigation this type of system has been used. Limited to a dead of load of 100kg/m2 the system has been augmented with native wildflowers and spring bulbs to ensure that there is a good range of botanical interest to support nectar loving insects. A number of specific wildflowers have been chosen, which are host plants for a number of rare beetles and additional features such as logs have been included in the design. Over time this roof should develop into an interesting and important patch of wildspace in the heart of the Capital.
This project wasin stalled by livingroofs member Landmark Roofs, a specialist green roof contractor. To ensure that the existing waterproofing was protected and thus ensuring the integrity of the building used a Flag Soprema TPO single ply membrane, loose laid over existing mineral felt roof. The system was based upon a FlagSoprema/Optigreen green roof sedum extensive green roof. In additional to the conventional blanket on 80mm of substrate/growing media a large number of Allium and Muscari bulbs were planted. The sedum finish has also been augmented with both an annual and a wildflower seed mix.
Mark Benneton of Landmark Roofs adds:
“Green roofs are not just aesthetically pleasing in an urban environment, they have so many beneficial qualities. Roof greening makes perfect sense for helping to create natural habitats and encourage biodiversity. It is also a pleasure and, to be honest a relief, to be working on a design and specification arrived at by a recognised specialists in the field - the Green Roof Consultancy.
“Having been in the traditional roofing industry for many years, it is both refreshing and enjoyable to be installing quality living roofs in varying locations. I am really excited to be involved in green roofing and to be actively encouraging sustainability and conservation.”
Landmark roofs are working on a number of projects across the UK from Dorset to the West Midlands and this week they will be installing a brown, biodiverse roof at the exclusive Imperial Wharf development in Chelsea.
Livingroofs News Team 17th October 2010
