final presentation

The final review took place on July 25 in North Hall with a great view of the roof. Thank you to all the folks that took the time to come out on a hot summer evening to see the presentation, and to provide insight, commentary, and expertise to the conversation! And congratulations again to the students - the work was really excellent: well-thought out, and persuasive. We succeeded in really demonstrating the potential of DEP-funded green roof projects to provide multiple environmental and social benefits while meeting essential storm water management goals. Until we post images of the work on the blog site, you can follow the links below to the presentations of the 4 teams [note that these are enormous files and may take some serious time to download]


biodiversity:
adaptaspace
public
urban agriculture:
urban yield
fourth floor farmstead

team scope + presentation

the EXPANDED DESIGN

Working as a team, you have expanded the program of Pratt's green roof, folding in additional activities, ideas, structures, and scales into the existing framework you explored as individuals in phase 1. This does not mean your design should have everything but the kitchen sink - no dog's breakfasts please! Instead you and your team have carefully crafted a design concept that guided your decisions regarding each facet and component of the roof. We proposed two strands of exploration for each team to choose from: urban agriculture and biodiversity. While these are large categories that have potential overlap, we asked that each team choose ONE as their primary organizing principle.

each team will present

+ their chosen strand
+ a clearly articulated design concept
+ an exploration of how the team's strand impacts and works with the 3 primary goals that we began with as a class [see below]
+ at least 2 additional goals

+ [1] systems diagram [with appropriate metrics] per team member

+ a well thought out plan and section
+ drawings that give a sense of the experience of the place
+ clearly defined strategies for water collection, roof system, plant selection, monitoring, education, job creation

Additionally, the project remains a DEP funded project: your team should build on the work you have done thus far. [this may or may not mean that you will retain your physical design of the roof - it should at the very least provide a starting point]

[1] BEST CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES FOR STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
[2] APPROPRIATE DESIGN APPROACH FOR EASY MAINTENANCE
[3] CAREFUL CONSIDERATION OF HOW THE ROOF WILL BE USED AS A RESEARCH STATION

soil research

a note from Paul of Gaia Soil : 

"All green roof media, including mine, are porous, so usually retain about half the rainfall up to saturation.

The reason we now virtually always build microswale systems is, if water is held in contact with the capillary materials in the medium, water will be pulled up into the capillary matrix.

Six inches of GaiaSoil holds about 2 inches of water, or 1.25 gallons of water per square foot (7.48 gallons/cubic foot times 1/6th of a cubic foot = 1.2467 gallons)

So will actually expect the GaiaSoil to hold about this quantity if microswales are used (pictured below).

One way to do this is eliminate the drainage matt, and create swales either with the roofing membrane itself  (we have used Neptune's  zero VOC neoprene WetSuit)"

MicroTerracing details and information

presentation from class charrette: july 11

follow this link to see how we are developing a single plan from the work done in the class thus far for the 60% DEP submittal...

link to kristen's pratt map

the illustrator file [also in the dropbox]

pratt green roof potential

working estimate for us collectively to use: 117,000 sf*

*why this number differs from the number on the plan: I subtracted 20% of this total for hvac, etc.
If you are looking at a specific roof, please apply this logic as well. 

readings for july 11

I have emailed the readings for July 11th - they are also listed and linked under the readings tab.