[De Tom]

Wouldn't it be great if owners of Ruko's, office buildings, shops etc in urban or city areas could utilize their rooftops for some greenery?

We're gonna try to make something on a small scale for our house in Kerobokan. I love the idea of having small trees and bushes on the roof. Luckily we use more than half the size of the concrete roof slab for a terrace so making it green will be a great addition. Don't forget to waterproof properly and add extra ceramic tiles on top of that (just in case the waterproofing cracks or wears out.. ) and arrange for the water and dirt flows for the the rain season. I haven't gone through which plants we will use but it'll have to be strong ones that won't blow away in heavy wind and can take alot of sun.

The tough part, generally, is to get people to realize the benefits of rooftop greenery and then it's the part of some maintenance which cannot be neglected.

Here are two rooftop 'parks' i took a quick snapshot of while in Singapore.

Ontop of iSETAN or Shaw


Ontop of Wheelock

[Ubudian]

Tom, at first I was going to reply with a question akin to, “what Balinese do you know who are building with a flat roof” but understanding that you mean those commercial buildings, apartments and condominiums and such, I agree, not a bad idea at all assuming the roof structure has been enabled with the additional supports needed to handle this tremendous additional weight.

The idea of meeting my own death, crushed by a durian tree on the roof above me is rather high on my list of “most ignomous” ways to die on Bali.

Personally, I don’t think this would every “fly” with the Balinese who are so immersed in land, earth, the top world versus the underworld, “niskala” versus “sekala” and all that sort of thing.

I know for certain that my wife would never sleep under a tree, meaning a tree planted above her. Would Wayan feel “OK” with this?

[De Tom]

Interesting aspect you bring up of this. I'm not really sure if Wayan would feel comfortable being 'underground' spiritually speaking. She generally thinks it's a good idea since it looks pretty and greens up an otherwise quite stale urban environment. If it would be lots of flowers instead of just regular greenery i think we can at least win the hearts of alot of women in Bali. It's may be abit like the dilemma Mangku Pastika was facing when discussing the roads above ground. Some meant that feets and other 'dirty' parts of our bodies etc had no place above our heads as it would be on an elevated road with roads below. On the other hand some said, well.. we have an airport and planes flying over Bali 24/7. There you have people and they even do worse things (WC) than just travel above your heads. Should we ban them too? I think some flexibility has to be considered in times of need and as greenery or space next to roads are very scarse or difficult to now implement in urban areas of Bali may be adding greenery to flat rooftops will be at least one solution at hand. I don't think a Durian tree would be high up on the list though...

[Ubudian]

And then, there is another potential issue. Assuming these buildings, which are going to have a roof top “garden” are already at maximum allowable height…a coconut palm, what about these roof top trees and plants over topping the height of such coconut palms?

I can easily envision some Balinese foretelling that if this was allowed, all the coconut palms in Bali would eventually die out.

In my mind I’ve already mentally abdicated the urban sprawl in southern Bali to another world, which isn’t Bali anymore.

No question the Balinese who live in those areas would vigorously disagree with me, and rightfully so, but on the other hand, the Balinese in my area pretty much think along the same lines as me.

There are seeds here to another possibly interesting discussion along these lines, which as a pun, I sometimes call it the “Balinese Mason-Dixon Line.”

Interestingly enough, the Gods in our village (our Barongs) never visit or spend time in any village temple I can think of “down there” and conversely, those Gods from “down there” never spend any time visiting in any of our temples, “up here” either. In the past, when I’ve asked those who should know about this, I’ve never gotten anything close to a specific answer. As my Balinese cousin once quipped to me, “don’t worry about it until you see all of us up here wearing blue sarongs, and all of them down there wearing grey sarongs!”

This issue of “air born” toilets, viz, aircraft over head is something that I have asked about before…great minds thinking alike I guess!

The consistent answer I’ve always gotten is that once in flight, an airplane doesn’t factor in with this Balinese “logic” as it is not connected to the ground, as is the case with a building. Those answers I’ve gotten when exploring this topic always end up with the analogy of a bird taking a dump while in flight. That sounds reasonable enough to me, such that reason can be found here.

PS...sorry for the overkill with smilies!

[drbruce]

I've been thinking about the same thing Tom. Our house is right on the sea, and we just lost part of it once again during the rainy season. I've been thinking about tearing off all the tiles and putting a layer of concrete up on the third floor that would relieve us of having to fix genteng every rainy season. One of the things that I loved about living in Pakistan was hanging out on the flat roofs and having a little garden there. I used to watch the Chicago Cubs from my friend's flat roof in Chicago years ago. So far Su hasn't had any objections to this so I'm assuming that the chicken bones and stuff up at the top of the house have outlived their usefulness or can be transplanted somewhere else.

[De Tom]

There are a few things i considered before going ahead creating a flat roof space. Since i was a teenager I've always wanted a space for stargazing up on the roof with unobstructed views of the night-sky. I also had in mind that our land plot isn't very big so we don't have much garden space below. The flat roof space can compensate as a relaxing garden space early mornings and afternoons. Besides all the useful properties mentioned you also get a nice little breeze up there, cleaner or at least fresher air and views where your eyes can partially or freely gaze along the horizon.

[Ubudian]

Just be careful with nude sunbathing the way some New Yorkers enjoy their roof tops…those helicopter tourists and all!

[anna]

I love rooftop gardens! When I worked in Economic Development, I encouraged owners of residential buildings to have rooftop gardens. Here's a few articles from my files you might find interesting.
 RaiseTheRoofGreen.pdf (212.94K)
Number of downloads: 17
 BuildingGreenforToday\'sConsumer.pdf (326.04K)
Number of downloads: 21
 BuildingGreener.pdf (123.04K)
Number of downloads: 19
 MFT_WhatWomenWant.pdf (283.22K)
Number of downloads: 19
 SustainingLandscape.pdf (612.95K)
Number of downloads: 20
 MilansNewGate.pdf (379.81K)
Number of downloads: 19

[De Tom]

Thanks Anna! I've downloaded them all and will check them out tomorrow. Way passed my bedtime now.

[anna]

De Tom, on 21 March 2010 - 01:17 AM, said:

Thanks Anna! I've downloaded them all and will check them out tomorrow. Way passed my bedtime now.

Hope you enjoy them. I have many articles on greening, sustainability, development, etc...

[anna]

Let me know if anyone decides to attempt a green rooftop....I'd love to see the pictures and the choices of greenery chosen. Thanks!