Australia's largest green roof research and outreach project has been launched at the University of Melbourne's Burnley Campus near Richmond.
The Burnley Green Roofs Project will determine the best plant species and soils to use on city roofs, demonstrate how green roofs can use storm water and reduce building energy use and showcase how beautiful and multi-functional green roofs can be.
The project includes a large demonstration roof consisting of 14 different green roof types made up of distinct planting zones, irrigation and growing treatments; a research roof, dedicated to quantifying the environmental benefits of green roofs and plant performance; and a biodiversity roof, comprising a range of habitat features to encourage and sustain local wildlife.
Led by Nick Williams and John Rayner from the University of Melbourne, the project design was undertaken by multidisciplinary design practice HASSELL to enable small group teaching activities and to demonstrate the variety of green roofs available to the building industry.
The research team at the Burnley campus was the first to develop an Australian research green roof in 2008, which, although significantly smaller revealed a 48 per cent reduction in summer energy use.
Dr Williams said cities suffer from the urban heat island effect which makes them up to four degrees warmer than surrounding areas.
"A green roof can help overcome this by reflecting the sun's radiation and providing shade or evaporative cooling as well as dramatically reducing a building's energy costs, trapping dust and pollutants and dampening noise,” he said.
"The roof acts as a sponge reducing storm water runoff and potential flooding while lowering local temperature through evaporative cooling.”
Despite the many benefits of a green roof they are not common in Australia, but popular overseas.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said roof tops make up 17 per cent of the total land area in the city.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to achieve savings for building owners and create attractive, usable spaces for tenants and residents," Doyle said.
"It is clear to me that successful cities in the future will be the ones that adapt quickly to what people want. And today people want to live in the city because it offers opportunities but they also want openspaces, parks and a clean environment.”
The design team from HASSELL helped provide inventive design solutions to assemble the roofs.
Many elements of the roof were pre-fabricated and test assembled off-site, then transported and reassembled on the rooftop – this represents an innovation in design, research and construction process, according to Stephen Tan from HASSELL.
Ongoing research and the design lessons from the Burnley Green Roof will now be used to provide technical knowledge for architects, landscape designers and public policy makers to install green roofs in Australian cities.
