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Tallest living biofilter wall in North America at the University of Ottawa, ON. A PR IL 2016 | 25 Green Roofs & Walls While his systems do have an esthetic appeal, Darlington predicts that "in 20 years our walls may be confined to mechanical rooms." But for the present, they remain a highly attractive building feature, no more so than at the University of Ottawa, where Nedlaw created the tallest living biofilter wall in North America: six-storeys high with the capa- bility of treating 13,806 cubic feet per minute of air. Darlington may well speak for pur- veyors of green roofs and walls overall when he says, "The success of these sys- tems both visually and functionally is making developers and architects more amenable to considering their inclusion in new building construction and ren- ovation. Often, these systems pay for themselves; they're a great feature for almost any type of facility." Kees Govers, technical sales man- ager at LiveRoof Ontario Inc. says that there is now a greater understanding of the overall benefits of green roof systems. LiveRoof, which has a network of 21 industry leading green roof growers and a col- lective 500-plus years of horticultural experience, is now seeing increasing inter- est across the country. Last summer LiveRoof installed a 24,200-square-foot lightweight vegetated roof on the Splatsin Community Centre in B.C. The unique dome-shaped green roof is designed to represent a traditional winter shelter used by Splatsin ances- tors. The site design allows stormwater and below-grade drainage to be captured and used to irrigate the vegetated roof as well as ground-level native landscapes around the building. Govers adds that he is also seeing significant movement in Calgary as they tackle the problems with flooding. "The grow- ing understanding of our environment is one reason for indus- try growth. There's also a realization that traditional methods of engineering haven't really brought about the changes that they should have. People are starting to look at the infrastruc- ture as a whole, and stormwater management systems and green roofs are a big part of that," says Govers. However, Govers adds that when it comes to green roof sys- tems, there is no such thing as a one size fits all solution: "You need to think about the purpose of the green roof. It's a ques- tion of putting the right green roof in for the right purpose," says Govers. One of the primary purposes of the green roof at Humber River Hospital for example, which opened its doors last year, was to promote biophilic healing. Every roof visible from a patient's room is covered with the green roof system. The 13,192-square-metre green roofing is the largest of its kind in Canada and also the largest LiveRoof brand installation to date. Last year LiveRoof introduced a new hybrid product, called RoofBlue that allows water retention roofs (aka blue roofs) to co-exist with green roofs. "It has been eight years in the making and we finally introduced it this past year. It utilizes the old standby control flow drain and rather than having the green roof system rest directly on the membrane it raises it up by 10 cen- timetres," says Govers. "The resulting cavity allows the water level on the roof to be raised without drowning the plants during extreme storm events." The system maximizes rooftop stormwater management capability and has the potential to greatly reduce the need for other onsite stormwater management tools, such as cisterns, detention ponds, or underground storage tanks. When it comes to the future of green roofs Govers is optimistic: "Demand is still increasing but not quite as fast as before. The market is now increasing 10 per cent a year rather than the 35 or 40 per cent that we saw a few years ago, but today there is a realization that green roofs are an integral part of the entire infrastructure." A PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOUBLESPACE PHOTOGRAPHY/DIAMOND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS COURTESY NEDLAW LIVING WALLS Hydrotech Membrane.indd 1 16-03-17 2:16 PM

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