The Green Infrastructure Consultancy’s large-scale retrofit of the Museum of London (MOL) is slowly taking shape. The wildflower blanket, supplied by Bauder Ltd, on the courtyard roof at the MOL is bedding in and blooming.
The Honey bees from the hive besides the meadow are making full use of the wildflowers, as are a number of bumblebees and solitary bees. Further wildflower blankets have been installed on the higher roofs and are slowly helping to green up this large building in the centre of London.
This is one of the most ambitious retrofits in the UK, and will see a whole range of different green roof types installed across the roof footprint. These will include, it is hoped, an orchid meadow, a dry riverbed habitat, an acid grassland and even a woodland understorey planting under a tower block perched above one of the roofs at MOL. It is hoped in the near future that roofs will be a focus for research, workshops, training and tours of green roofs. Not only on MOL but elsewhere in the City of London.
The wildflower blanket supplied by Bauder is based on a well established wildflower blanket widely used in Germany. The waterproofing and root protection and all the green roofs have been installed by Russelltrew, a leading roof contracting company.
And there are more roofs to be installed on the renewed waterproofing. The roofs at MOL should become seminal, especially as we move into an era where the full ecosystem service benefits of vegetation and soil in urban area, will be recognised as important. Green roofs, green walls and other green features in densely populated areas will be an important element in how cities adapt to climate change and allow nature and what nature has to offer back into cities. A new area of green roof at the MOL will soon be finished. This roof builds on research in both the UK and Switzerland over the last ten years and will feature wet areas and temporary ponds. Adding another element of biodiversity to the evolving ecological niches on the roofs.