ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS AT UH FIND OUT HOW
EASY IT IS TO BE GREEN
Vegetation-Covered Roofs Good for Air, Water and Pocketbook
HOUSTON, April 14, 2005—Students at the University of Houston
College of Architecture are rolling up their sleeves and pulling
up their gardening gloves as they prepare to plant and care for
native vegetation on simulated rooftops. The mock green roofs being
assembled April 18-25 will resemble the real thing that will sit
atop a new facility on the UH campus.
“Students will monitor these mock green roofs all summer
to see how the plants respond,” Chula Sanchez, adjunct professor
at the College of Architecture said. “This is an on-going,
living, green roof research laboratory.”
Green roofs literally are vegetation-cover roofs on buildings
that create a living, breathing, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally
friendly alternative to traditional roofs. Sanchez says green roofs
clean the air, cool buildings and reduce energy costs and storm
water runoff.
“Flooding is a big issue for Houston,” she said. “Green
roofs offer a natural solution as opposed to an engineering solution.
Plants and soil absorb the rain and excess water is channeled into
retention tanks.”
Students will be using plants grown in a park-like area near the
architecture college of architecture known as the “green zone.”
The students’ mock green roofs will look like the green roof
that will eventually sit on top of the Burdette Keeland Design Exploration
Center. The Keeland Building formerly was the university’s
band annex and is being remodeled into a hands-on studio for architecture
students. It is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2005.
“The green roof project is an example of our college’s
deep interest in sustainable design,” Joe Mashburn, dean of
the college of architecture said. “It will provide yet another
hands-on project for our innovative students’ involvement.”
The green roof on the Keeland building will feature native vegetation
on the sloped roof and will join a handful of green roofs in Houston
located in the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
and at the Marriott Houston Downtown. Other examples of green roofs
are the Chicago City Hall, the Ford River Rouge plant in Detroit
and the Mercedes-Benz M-Class facility in Alabama.
“This is something very special,” Sanchez said. “Our
students are learning to design and build with an eye toward being
environmentally aware. That’s very promising for the future
of our city and even beyond.”
For more information on UH College of Architecture, visit www.arch.uh.edu
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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