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A green roof is a roof of a building which is partially or completely covered with plants. It may be a tended roof garden or a more self-maintaining ecology like a living wall or breathing wall . An earth structure often has such a roof, as plants simply grow naturally over it, making a hill that is from some angles indistinguishable from a natural one.Green roofs are used to:
- Provide amenity space for building users - in effect replacing a yard or patio
- Reduce heating (by adding mass and thermal resistance value ) and cooling (by evaporative cooling) loads on a building - especially if it is glassed in so as to act as a terrarium and passive solar heat reservoir
- Reduce the urban heat island effect
- Increase roof life span
- Reduce storm water run off - see water-wise gardening
- Filter pollutants and CO2 out of the air - see breathing wall
- Provide locally grown food - in which case it is known as a roof garden
- Increase wildlife habitat in built up areas - see urban wilderness
A green roof is often a key component of an autonomous buildingAn autonomous building is a building designed to have very little to no networked services. Most modern buildings use electric power, telephone, water, sewerage, storm drain and road services. Functionally, autonomous buildings use native resources to rep.
According to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (a network of public and private interests founded by Steven W. Peck based in Toronto):
- "In North AmericaNorth America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocea, the benefits of green roof technologies are poorly understood and the market remains immature, despite the efforts of several industry leaders. In EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Se however, these technologies have become very well established"
See also: eco-village, arcologyAn arcology so far only existing conceptually (with experiments taking place at Arcosanti), is an extremely large building, sufficient to maintain an internal ecology as well as an extremely high human population density. Popular in science fiction, arcol
External links
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
Architectural elements
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