AUTHOR: David DATE: 2/17/2005 02:00:00 PM ----- BODY:

I'm not an environmentalist per se but I can appreciate how reducing waste in some areas can actually make life better. The homes and buildings detailed at Treehugger.com's Architecture Archives are great examples of environmentally, and sometimes long-term $, more efficient buildings. Plus a lot of these concepts have some great applications in the third world. I'd love to have a green roof if only to have a garden for my kids in my otherwise tightly constricted lot. One problem as I see it though, aside from the upfront costs involved in constructing the roof and ensuring adequate drainage, water fastness, etc., is that most of the materials they recommend for green roofs are sedums and all the examples I've seen (as exemplified by the photo above) are in the more northern, temperate climate zones. I don't know how well these would stand up to the harsh tropical sunlight or to being lashed by typhoon rains and winds. There must be an equally hardy, low maintenance plant that can be used for tropicalized green roofs. The local equivalent of the green roof is the traditional nipa hut thatched roof but this is made up of dead leaves, so it's barely an equivalent really. Back on point, even if the cost of building this type of roof wasn't an issue the next biggest problem would be finding an architect/contractor team locally that would be able to execute this kind of project. Reading through Dwell magazine and the comparable modern-oriented architectural magazines it's frustrating that we don't seem to have the same thinking-forward type architects in the Philippines. If they are around I have no idea who they are.

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