Lower and lighter, the angle of a roof’s pitch not only helps to determine how quickly it can drain rain and snow, but also defines the whole character and feel of a building. For example, steep pitches of 60 degrees or more are a common feature in gothic revival architecture – helping to create an imposing impression – whilst many housebuilders opt for a right-angled form factor with roof pitches around 45 degrees. Recently, however, designers of both domestic and non-domestic buildings have started to think more low-key — introducing pitches of between 30 and 10 degrees.
I conducted an informal survey with some of my expert colleagues, and this is the result. The first top ten innovations in the living architecture industry list. Innovations that are worthy of knowing about and celebrating. Some innovations are already well established in the market, while others are in the very early or even pre-adoption phase. Yet all show promise in helping us implement many more green roofs and walls in the future.
Our green roofs have extraordinarily high rates of customer satisfaction … unless (and I hate to even say this) … the roof leaks. While all roofs need to perform well, the bar is particularly high for vegetative roofing, since it can be costly to fix a leak after a green roof is implemented. How can we use integrity testing innovations to ensure that our new membranes are breach free and watertight?