Beautiful and Edible Green Roof

Although this blog is dedicated to green roofs, I couldn't resist this piece about a green rooftop garden in Los Angeles called SynthE, on a building known as The Flat, which, by the way, is home to the famous restaurant, Blue Velvet.

Inhabitat.com reports in a story titled: "SYNTHe: An Urban Rooftop Garden Prototype in Los Angeles," by Haily Zaki, about this new green roof. $20 Off AeroGardens

The roof was designed by Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) professor Alexis Rochas. As one can see from the pictures, there are furrows which are filled with edible plants such as herbs, lettuces, etc.

Inhabitat explains that the garden will be maintained and enjoyed by both the residential tenets as well as the chefs and patrons of Blue Velvet. Additionally, the waste products from the garden and produce will be composted and returned to the garden.

Rochas's plan was to use the space to reduce the heating and cooling costs of structure, as well as better management of the storm water runoff this building produces. Instead of using regular soil, the garden uses a synthetic growing medium, which I assume is much like Suntory's Pafcal. FREE SHIPPING on orders over $50.00 at InhabitLiving.com

Here is another of picture of the roof without the plants. It is quite a sight and I hope it encourages Los Angeles property owners and developers to consider a green roof in the future.

Suntory Creates Synthetic Soil

Suntory, the Japanese company better known for whiskey and other beverages, issued a press release announcing it had created a way to grow green roofs and green walls without soil.

From the press release: "Suntory brings its unique roof-greening system, Midori no Yane (literally, green roof), and wall-greening system, Hana no Kabe (literally, wall of flowers) onto market on March 3, 2008. "

The synthetic soil, known as Pafcal, is made from urethane and is far lighter than organic soil. Wisegeek.com notes: "It looks much like regular soil, and can be used for a variety of planting products. The material is meant to help meet new Tokyo building regulations, which insist that any new building over a certain size limit must have a roof garden to offset carbon dioxide production. "

Let's raise our glasses to Suntory for creating a lighter weight material for growing and promoting green roofs.