Green Roof life adds a new layer to daily street life in the delta city. The concept of living on a higher

level combines multiple space use with social interaction. Green Roof life brings nature close to daily

life, provides rain water storage, grey water reuse and solves urban heat islands. In the occasional event

a flood, life continues on top of the city.

The Green Roof life ConceptGreen Roof life explores and optimizes the available space on and above roofs. There is space for

parks, agriculture, sports or culture. The concept is energy saving by cooling the air and providing

shading for the buildings below making air conditioners unnecessary. The entire grey water system will

be uncoupled, purified and used as irrigation. Doing so, even in heat waves and periods of drought,

enough water is supplied to the roofs, cooling the city by evaporation. It reduces the urban heat island

effect and increases the environmental quality. Besides greening current roofs, also green frameworks

can be put over entire buildings. These exo-skeletons avoid restrictions from the carrying capacity of the

current roofs. Climbing plants can grow on the columns that transport the recycled grey water to the roof.

In the summer the green framework is a natural umbrella that provides shading. In winter when the leafs

have fallen, sunshine is welcome to enter your building. The roofs and frameworks will be connected

by pedestrian fly-overs from one roof to another. This provides an extra, clean way for slow means of

transport and keeps you out of the dirty streets below.

Roof Life offers:

1. Multiple space use:

o Lay back in the roof park of your neighborhood

o Urban agriculture: grow your own vegetables

o Play tennis during the office hours on the roof or soccer with your neighbors.

2. Evaporation from the plants on the roof provides cooling to the building below and its sur

roundings. In this way it replaces the usual air conditioning. Conventional green roofs of

sedum turn brown in heat waves, providing insulation to the building below only. Intensive green

roofs of grass, bushes and trees offer a similar cooling capacity as an airconditioner, as long as

sufficient water (grey water or tap water) is available.

3. A social accelerator. People meet on top of their shared green roof.

4. Slower run off of rain water, decreasing peak discharges to the sewer system.

5. Green roofs can be used for grey water purification of the offices and houses below. The urban

grey water will be cleaned before it evaporates. Evaporation and grey water re-use is top class

combination.

6. Evacuation routes in times of flooding

The strength and unique solving capability of the concept lies in the combination of functions with the

potential of the neighborhood connected to climate change. The roof will be no longer unused space,

but will be a place and infrastructure in daily life. People meet and connect on this roof level, grow their

own vegetables and come closer to nature and make people more aware of the water cycle and climate

adaptation process. In high densed areas where semi-public space is provident, this new layer creates

new outer space.

Location and timepathRoof life can be implemented anywhere and anytime, but it will be most valuable in high density urban

areas with a risk of flooding. Production of grey water is high so there is lots of water for plants on the

roof and framework to evaporate. The concept can be build step by step and slowly adapt to changing

future conditions. It is literally and figuratively a new framework for adapting delta cities to climate

change.

We took the Roof life concept to the district of Katendrecht in Rotterdam, where we combined the green

framework over existing houses with the big green roofs on industrial buildings on the waterfront.

Roof life takes you to a higher levelRoof life adds an urban space to city life with unique qualities. Roof life brings you closer to a natural

living experience and takes you to a higher level. Roof life makes living in a changing climate pleasant.

Green Roof life; a cool life Framework for a top layer in the Delta city