Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2010 - (Page 17)

taken. Landscape architect, Jennifer Stamp, describes how an integrative design process prepared the Olympic Village team for the challenge: “It started with everyone in the room. We had geotechnical engineers, contamination engineers, people from Millennium [Olympic Village developer], people from the City, other landscape architects; we had every cast and crew member that could be gathered when we kicked this off.” Durante Kreuk’s green roof design incorporated a mix of intensive and extensive systems, both to comply with the 50 percent rule and to provide areas for urban agriculture to occur. The Michigan-based Live Roof® prevegetated module system, again propagated by N.A.T.S. Nursery, was used on the community centre parcel alone, while the rest of the roofs incorporated Xero Flor’s extensive mat system. The Xero Flor system was chosen as it provided the benefits of a fast installation, instant establishment and was flexible enough to accommodate Durante Kreuk’s unique design: in order to remind future residents of the village’s Olympic heritage, huge profiles of athletes in action were carefully planted in contrasting red among the green and yellow sedum mats. Karen Liu, Xero Flor’s director of research and development, admires the landscape architects’ creative touch: “A green roof is not always green.” Horizon Landscape Contractors were responsible for installing both systems. General manager, Brian Dougherty, who was familiar with the challenges of green roof installation, felt an increased amount of pressure working on the Olympic Village: “It’s not exactly an easy gig to be the last trade in on such a time-constrained project, but we anticipated [those challenges] and with some good project management we were able to get a head start in some areas.” Part of that head start included taking advantage of module-installation training sessions offered by N.A.T.S. Nursery before the Olympic Village plantings began. “Horizon Landscapes were diligent in preparing well in advance,” says Andrea Martinello, marketing manager and green roof specialist at N.A.T.S. Nursery. “It was just another example of how collaboration amongst trades improves the process.” OLYMPIC-SIZED PROFILE Of course, this past winter, one could hardly turn on the television without seeing not only one, but two, of the most innovative green roof projects in the world – the Vancouver Convention Centre and Olympic Village. Such profile, says Paul Kephart, is invaluable toward the widespread adoption of green roof technology. “[The 2010 Winter Olympics] put living systems and vegetated rooftops into an everyday occurrence to where it’s just part of our community and part of our architecture. It showed the world what was possible.” The integrated design process has helped bring functionally integrated, sustainable design out of the realm of anomaly and into the accessible mainstream. Further study on the impact green roof systems can have within urban environments will most certainly yield even more innovative and integrated solutions. Simply put by the Durante Kreuk team: “We multiply our thinking through collaboration.” Lucas Nightingale, LEED AP (CI), is currently completing his bachelor’s degree in interior design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Richmond, British Columbia. Visit both of these projects on Dec 1st at CitiesAlive. http://www.soprema.ca http://www.soprema.ca

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2010

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2010
Contents
From the Founder
Strata
On the Roof With...
What is Integrated Design?
How Do We Move the Practice of Integrated Design Forward?
West Coast Integrated Design
Integrated Design for Solar & Green Roofs
Do Green Roofs Improve the Efficiency of PV Panels?
An Invitation to CitiesAlive! in Vancouver this Fall
GHRC Professional Development Calendar
Roof to Plate
Research Showing Early Promises
Advanced Green to Roof Maintenance Course to Launch
New GRPS
New Online Tools
New Corporate Members
Making Government Programs Work Harder

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2010