The 2800-m2 roof garden atop the M Central residential complex in Pyrmont, Sydney, was completed in 2005 by landscape architects, 360°. It features native grasses, succulents, vine arbours and mature specimen trees alongside cascading water features, timber boardwalks and sculptures.
Credit: Sue Stubbs
Freshwater Place is a luxury apartment development in Melbourne’s Southbank, boasting a 2,000-m2 roof garden on the 10th floor. Designed five years ago by landscape architect Laurence Blyton.
Credit: Paul Philipson
The 2800-m2 roof garden atop the M Central residential complex in Pyrmont, Sydney, was completed in 2005 by landscape architects, 360°. It features native grasses, succulents, vine arbours and mature specimen trees alongside cascading water features, timber boardwalks and sculptures.
Credit: Sue Stubbs
he City of Sydney picked up the 2009 Australian Award for Urban Design for its development of the Paddington Reservoir sunken gardens on Oxford Street. The underground reservoir dates back to 1866. The ruins have been converted into a tree fern garden, while two roof gardens planted with native grasses are accessible at street level.
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Different cities, different solutions
The most substantial benefit of green roofs in Australian cities will be the evaporative cooling that occurs, says Ben Nicholson, a Melbourne-based town planner, who has toured the world’s best green roof projects.
“Green roofs can reduce the temperature of a roof’s surface by 50°C – it’s really significant. The reduction of heat transfer into the building elements depends on a number of factors, but it also makes a big difference on the surrounding air,” he says.
Overseas, many cities acknowledge the benefits. Tokyo, for example, now requires green roofs to be installed on 20 per cent of the city’s roof surfaces, and many US cities are introducing regulations designed to promote green roofs.
At 600 metres in the sky, one of the world’s highest green roofs is on Chicago’s Willis Tower, formerly called the Sears Tower, which was the world’s tallest building when it was completed in 1973. As part of a green retrofit to reduce the building’s energy use by an estimated 80 per cent, an experimental green roof featuring mountainous plants like sedum was installed a year ago on a 90th-floor rooftop, with further rooftop gardens planned.
