Pumice?
Seeding the City continues to move forward, with some great advances and additions to the project team. In December I was contacted by Vert, a local green roofing company that was really interested in the project. We met and they are coming on strong as a valuable partner. They are going to help ensure safe installation through design help and installation management. I really look forward to working with them.
Pumice
I also just received notice that the project received a Department of Cultural Affairs grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council, which is great news!
Finally I met with the inspirational and endlessly fascinating Josh Klein, who is working on (among many other things), a project called Seed/Bed, whereby he will transform an airstream into a carbon negative machine which will eventually find a home on an NYC rooftop where it will plug into the systems to help reduce energy usage.
One of the things he was pushing me to do with the project is to rethink coming up with a new type of green roofing system (I had considered that in the early days and discarded it). We talked about different ideas, roll out turf, seeded felt, but our favorite was the potential of impregnated exploded clay. With all of its water absorption and drainage it offers similar positive affects on stormwater runoff. It is lightweight and increases the surface area, plus there might be some plants that could grow in it with little to no maintenance. I am doing some, research, will let you know…
In the meantime, if you are a designer interested in working on the project pro bono – potential for a lot of exposure though – let me know. We can start with fixing the logo below.
Any other ides – get in touch!
Jorg Breuning said:
Hi,
Your ideas sound very interesting. However it isn’t just dumping some dirt on a roof and planting what ever you want. Further by optimizing the growing media for stormwater retention –or other benefits- you might create a big disadvantage for the plants and it is quickly over with green. Don’t reinvent the wheel – too many did that in this country and failed, which brings a bad image for an entire new industry!
I can give you the names of suppliers of what you need and go with them. It is worth and you investment will pay back – especially when getting grants – don’t waste it (wasting grants is the worst environmental disaster). Thanks
http://greenroofservice.blogspot.com/
eve said:
Hey Jorg!
Thanks for the comments – I definitely am not dumping dirt & planting! I’ve done a lot of research and talked to green roof installers & growers. I also don’t want to reinvent the wheel – I don’t have time for that.
Given all that there are some issues with some of the systems – and a hybrid of two systems is really what would be most useful for my project, which for now means diy style. This is what I am looking at now: http://seedingthecity.org/diy-green-roofs.
On the other hand, if you have some great thoughts on what could work that is already out there, email me (eve @ seedingthecity dot org) I would really really appreciate any thoughts or feedback that you have.
Thanks!