Intensive Living Roof

Intensive living roof systems, also known as Roof Gardens, are characterised by their capacity to sustain a wide variety of vegetation ranging from herbaceous plants, large shrubs, trees, lawns and even food crops, as well as hard landscaped areas and water features.

Intensive living roofs are principally designed for their recreational and amenity value, creating public and private spaces used for playgrounds, parks and gardens for people and nature to enjoy. Intensive living roofs are rapidly gaining popularity in dense urban environments where access to green space is reduced and at a premium.

Aside from recreational use intensive living roofs are facilitating the growth of urban agricultural movements, or rooftop farms, where roof space is used for growing food crops. This produce often serves the local community, reducing the ‘food miles’ travelled from where it is grown to where it is consumed and increasing local food security.

Our design philosophy of ‘whatever you can build on the ground, you can build on the roof’ is fully established when designing and creating an intensive green roof. Provided the basics of intensive green roof design are observed, such as engineering a structure capable of withstanding saturated loads and installing a robust root resistant waterproofing system, intensive green roof design parameters are essentially limitless.

As the name suggests, intensive living roofs require intensive maintenance and a structured approach to irrigation. Effective rainwater management in terms of drainage and retention is essential to ensure long term system performance. Plant selection and design will also greatly affect system nutrient requirements and focused maintenance provided by Axter specialist partners is essential.