With the world facing the growing and tangible impacts of the climate crisis, urban biodiversity is no longer preferable but paramount to ensuring resilient cities. The Green Our Roof project is both research piece and exemplar. The purpose of the project is to provide a blueprint for greening our underutilised city surfaces, reinforcing the role of biodiversity in city-making. Green Our Roof challenges misconceptions about cost and complexity, showcasing green roofs as an affordable, scalable solution for urban resilience.

Designed as a live research platform, the rooftop is deliberately divided into two distinct zones. One half is dedicated to scientific testing and is integrated with data collection framework and ecological monitoring. The other half showcases the beauty of biodiversity and the benefits of climate-resilient landscapes. While each side serves a different purpose, they share the same plant palette to ensure consistency and cohesion across the entire rooftop. This approach allows the project to function both as a living laboratory and a visually engaging landscape, demonstrating that research and aesthetics can successfully coexist.

Crucial to progressing the uptake of green roofs within our cities is ensuring building owners are equipped with research-based metrics to dispel misconceptions and make informed financial decisions about the type of green roof they invest in. The testing component of Green Our Roof trials various combinations of plant palettes and installation techniques – such as direct seeding, tube stock planting, and mature plant installations. This research scope provides data on plant performance, temperature regulation, structural load distribution, stormwater absorption, plant survival rates, substrate performance, and biodiversity interactions, offering valuable insights into upfront costs, maintenance requirements, and the long-term performance of green roofs. Data collected from this garden will not only enable building owners but inform policy recommendations and legislation change, ultimately ensuring that future Melbourne developments build on proven ecological strategies.

By establishing a space that remains undisturbed by human activity, it functions as a unique and dedicated ecological asset underpinned by biodiversity ecosystem services, research, and urban sustainability. The carefully selected native and climate-resilient plant palette provides habitat for insects and birds, creating a small but critical refuge within the urban environment and reinforcing Melbourne’s urban biodiversity network. Its inaccessibility becomes its strength, allowing the site to function as an undisturbed ecological system while providing critical data to inform future green infrastructure projects. For the onlookers from neighbouring buildings the garden provides a welcome relief among a city of concrete rooftops.

This project challenges conventional definitions of gardens and showcases their evolving role in a contemporary and resilient built environment. The Green Our Rooftop project’s commitment to ecological resilience, research-driven innovation, and sustainable urban strategy makes it an innovative leader for the LILA Award.

• Project typology:

Infrastructure, garden, roofs

• Other credits:

Client: Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) / Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) / City of Melbourne (CoM)

Indigenous Country: Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung Country

Scale: 2,200m2 (Rooftop footprint)

Imagery: David Hannah

Team: Lead Project Manager: SEMZ
Lead Design Consultant: Hassell
Lead Builder: Harris HMC
Horticulturalist: Superbloom
Benefits Assessment: University of Melbourne (UoM), Green Infrastructure Research Group
Structural Engineer: Meinhardt
Waterproofing consultant: Australian Waterproofing Consultants
Irrigation specialist: G & M Connellan Consultants

• Location of the project

Location: 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
(inaccessible to the public)

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