Write your abstract here. Green Cities –The Escape from the "Heat Island".
In post-apocalyptic science fiction (or present day Chernobyl), Mother
Nature is often depicted as having ''taken back'' the cities of mankind:
all is quiet, a deer nibbles among buildings with shattered windows and
crumbling walls. Weeds, grasses and flowers have begun to grow upon the
rubble and the roofs of remaining structures. Alternately, to evoke
travel through time, fingersnaps exchange skyscrapers and streets for
soaring redwoods and mossy earth, or vice versa. But why should dense urban centers be a one-or-the-other proposition,
with endless concrete and a few token parks thrown in? When Renzo Piano
designed the new California Academy of Sciences building in San
Francisco''s Golden Gate Park, thought to be the ''greenest museum ever
built'', he wanted it to seem as though a piece of the park had been
lifted and the building ''slid underneath''. Granted, you''re in a park to
begin with, but isn''t that exactly where 99% of North American cities
were plunked down in the first place? Fields, forests and wetlands--
even swamps, as if doesn''t say in the Welcome to D.C. visitor''s guide. Viewed from above, urban roofs are essentially inanimate: repeating
rectangular tracts of grey sandpaper, pocked with steel boxes
containing elevator motors and chugging ventilation equipment. Calling
this space ''wasted'' and idealistically demanding organic tomatoes and
rosemary be nurtured atop the 77th floor? As far as single urban core
projects go, that''s still the legal prerogative of the builders (at
present only Germany, Switzerland and Japan require vegetation atop
various new buildings). However, a long day''s sunlight shining down
upon a 20th century style metropolis results in something called the
''urban heat island effect'', which could be dramatically reduced by
living roofs. Absorption of rainwater is another benefit, as storm
runoff necessitates bigger and bigger drainage systems and increasing
time spent maintaining them. When Disneyland updated its Tomorrowland in 1997, it was asserted that
the Future was ''looking more and more like Montana''. The Autopia
attraction persists (and to be fair, there are plenty of freeways in
the Big Sky state), but the point was valid: people in the 1950''s saw a
future where we lived completely removed from trees and wildlife. In
the Fabulous Year 2007 you can look down upon projects under
construction that buck old trends-- maybe not from a flying car, but
from a blimp advertising tires that could end up on electric ones,
perhaps. On the west coast of North America alone, the 2.5 acre, 1.7
million native plant accommodating living roof of Cal-Sciences is just
one example of cities and nature shaking hands. In Seattle''s Ballard
district, a new library''s roof is home to 18,000 low-water plants
(appropriate... Ballard is historically-Norwegian, and the Vikings
often covered the tops of their homes with turf). On an even more
ambitious scale, when the Vancouver, B.C.''s convention center''s
expansion is completed next year, the building will feature a six-acre
living roof-- the largest in all of Canada. It will be home to 400,000
plants and feature wild grasses sure to be appreciated by wildlife
visiting downtown Vancouver''s north shore. Cooling down huge cities by a few degrees won''t solve global warming...
helping migratory butterflies won''t bring back extinct species...
rooftop produce gardens won''t significantly affect freeways jammed with
countless semi trucks trying to keep fast-food chains filled... but as
steps are slowly taken towards a more sustainable world, science will
be right alongside with designs that may not resemble the tomorrow we
expected, but will help ensure there actually is a tomorrow. Galaxy News Reported October 22n