The residential application of a roof or wall that is alive with vegetation has long been too daunting a proposition for most British Columbia homeowners. But things may be changing.
The idea of a green roof is nothing new. In Europe, they've been deliberately growing vegetation on their rooftops for centuries.
Big commercial projects such as Paris's Musée du Quai Branly has taken the idea to an avant-garde, vertical extreme, with the building's façade covered in a lush 8,600 sq. ft. carpet of plants.
B.C. is just now catching up with this growing trend. Over the last year or so, there's been a sudden surge of interest that's meant a new market for the companies that supply the systems for rooftop gardens.
In Sechelt, the luxury Wakefield Beach homes project is believed to be the largest residential green roof project in North America. It's comprised of 31 airy, west coast homes, and that's just phase 1.
Elevated Landscape Technologies representative Laura Barker says the residential green roof is a new aspect of their business throughout Canada.
"We are just starting to do them," says Ms. Barker, on the phone from company headquarters in Brantford, Ont. "We did our first certification [in B.C.] and we've got 10 installers out there doing them.
"It's been in Europe for so many years and Canada is finally getting on the bandwagon," she adds. "The city of Toronto did an initiative to get people to do green roofs, and I think that has woken up the rest of the country."
Germany-based Xero Flor Canada has five residential projects in B.C. currently on the line. The company sees the demand for green roofs particularly on the Gulf Islands, where they make a point of using local vegetation.
"It's really interesting to see a shift happening," says west coast representative Genevieve Noel. "Definitely people were always excited about it a few years back, but they weren't willing to pay for it. But now I find people are more willing to put the money forward and invest in something like that."
Bear in mind that this isn't a case of growing moss on your roof or ivy on your walls. A green roof requires a carefully engineered system comprised of a waterproof membrane that is designed to both contain moisture for the plants and prevent it from entering the building. The multi-layered system is added onto the existing roof, with the top layer comprising an inch or more of soil-type "growth media."
When Scott Hawthorn renovated the Gastown building that is home to his Blood Alley restaurant Salt, as well as his large upstairs living space, he opted for a green roof. He had his 3,500 sq. ft. roof installed a year ago for about $28,000 - not cheap, but reasonable if it lasts twice as long as a conventional roof. (A typical residential roof simply blanketed with one type of low-maintenance plant would cost about $12 to $15 per square foot, according to one landscape company.) As a rule, Mr. Hawthorn likes to step outside the box, whether it's a sedum-covered roof or a restaurant that enters off a sometimes vagrant-occupied alleyway.
"I always like to do stuff that hasn't been done before," says Mr. Hawthorn, a former investment banker who now seeks out creative real estate projects in Gastown.
"And it's just something I thought would be nice to have, because it's environmentally the right thing to do and it has a lot of benefits. It deadens sound, and it manages rainwater run-off. Inside, it's cooler too."
