Green Roofs in Greece

Roof greening is as old as the hills, literally. So called human civilisation has passed through three distinct stages of development1 The first stage of development and differentiation from the rest of the animal kingdom was the rise of the so called agricultural civilisation c.8000 bc, which saw groups of humans, usually extended families, leaving their hunter gatherer existences to settle in a single location and developing the first communities which are still recognizable today as villages around the world. Humans built dwellings in these communities.

The first building materials that man used were the things he found in his direct environment like earth (particularly clay), live plants, and dead plant material. At this time it was common practice to use either living plants or dead (in the form of straw for example) as the material of choice for the roof of shelters. Even these early farmers found that plants whether living or dead provided many benefits to the dwelling such as waterproofing, thermal insulation, reduction of storm water runoff, camouflage, beautification etc.

As agricultural civilisation flourished communities grew in size until they reached the size of modern small towns having many thousands of inhabitants. Roof greening continued to be popular in these ancient communities and reached its highest form of expression, possibly, in one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, The hanging gardens of Babylon. Roof greening continued to be popular around the world throughout the middle ages. Celtic sod and thatched roofs found in the Scottish Highlands, Wales and Ireland are good examples of roof greening before, during and right up to the renaissance and beyond. Examples of renaissance thatch can still be seen to this day in many countries including England. Possibly one of the most famous buildings with thatch are the Elizabethan buildings in Shakespearian Stratford-upon–Avon. Both Anne HathawayAnne Hathaway’s cottage and Shakespeare’s house, which can be visited, are fine examples of the use of plant material for roofing.

The industrial revolution was the second distinct wave of human development and brought with it fundamental changes in human life as it swept across the planet1 One of the most obvious changes the industrial revolution brought with it was the rise of the large town and modern city to serve the interests of the burgeoning new way of life, namely the formation of production facilities (factories) and markets for the sale of the products of industry. Factories and markets required workers and consumers who agglomerated in the urban centres we recognize as modern cities. Mass production and mass consumption brought with it the potential and necessity for large scale urban development. Consequently, natural building methods and materials were replaced by industrial building methods and materials. Material processing became possible and desirable so natural building materials were abandoned and replaced by brick, ceramic tile, portland cement and steel. The result can be seen from New York to Calcutta, from Reykjavik to Johannesburg.

The rise of the modern urban centre has brought with it a plethora of serious issues. Modern building materials and methods in conjunction with human industrial and consumption activity while serving human industrial and consumer needs in many respects are in conflict with the biosphere in many others. Consequently, humanity in the 21st Century finds its industrial activities, materilistic consumersim and its building materials and methods have led to severe degradation of the biosphere and many of the life support mechanisms of which we all depend are threatened. The challenges cities face include the urban heat island effect, stormwater runoff, epidemic levels of serious physical, emotional and mental illness, loss of habitat for the natural world, loss of biodiversity etc All these issues are discussed at length elsewhere so require no discussion here.

The aforementioned challenges began to become painfully evident to Western urban planners in the 1960’s and one of the responses to them was renewed interest in natural building methods and materials. This renewed interest was particularly seen in countries like Germany and Switzerland. Interest in roof greening grew out of this and took root as a respected building method in both of these countries.

Initial attempts at roof greening in Germany failed for a number of reasons. One of the most serious issues when roof greening began in that country was waterproofing. This caused roof greening to be seen as problematic for over a decade. German urban planners responded to this in 1975 with the establishment of the German landscape Research, Development and Construction Society or FLL. The FLL is an independent non-profit organization. It was founded by eight professional organizations for “the improvement of environmental conditions through the advancement and dissemination of plant research and its planned applications”3 The FLL green roof working group is only one of 40 committees which have published a long list of guidelines and labor instructions. The FLL has been working on standards for green roof technology for 25 years. Their ‘Guideline for the Planning, Execution and Upkeep of Green-Roof Sites’ (FLL-guidelines) reflects the latest developments in German acknowledged state-of-the-art technology. Although the guidelines don’t give solutions for all green roof problems it is a basic tool for the construction of reliable and high quality green roofs2 As a direct result of the formation of the FLL roof greening has become extremely popular in Germany. Currently it is estimated that 10% of German roofs are now green4 In Germany green roofing is primarily used as a method for the amelioration of storm-water runoff and carrot and stick legislation of grants and penalties has been instituted to encourage large scale roof greening.

Many attempts were made for decades to introduce roof greening to Greece with little or no success. In fact there were some spectacular failures which resulted in limited application of this exceptional concept in Greece. What dogged these attempts were ta number of fundamental challenges.

In 2002 a research team was assembled in Greece which included civil engineers, architects, gardeners, horticulturalists and environmentalists. The team resolved to address these issues and the super-lightweight, self-sustaining, natural oikosteges /ee-ko-stay-gez / (Greek for ecological/building/home/domestic and roof/shelter/abode) ecosystem was the result.4

Bibliography

1. The Third Wave – Alvin Toffler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Toffler

2. Introduction to the German FLL-Guidelines for the planning, execution and upkeep of green roof sites. Peter M. Philippi http://www.greenroofservice.com/downpdf/IntroductiontotheGermanFLL2.pdf

3. General Information about the FLL, http://www.fll.de

Green Roof Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_roof

4. http://www.oikosteges.gr