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A barrel shaped roof where our wildflower blanket was laid on top of an anchored 150mm Geoweb retention system giving the appearance of the house disappearing into the surrounding #countryside.
A barrel shaped roof where our wildflower blanket was laid on top of an anchored 150mm Geoweb retention system giving the appearance of the house disappearing into the surrounding countryside.
The result
NFRC Green roof of the year 2021 Finalist - Roofing Awards.
, NFRC
The image for Gloucester Gateway was to build a building, that didn’t look like a building. The new service station on the northbound side of the M5 between J11 and J12 was a leap forward in service station design and engineering. The clients aimed to do something different from the average motorway services. No franchises, no big brands, but instead a sense of where you are - a sense of place; homemade food and farm shops that work hand in glove with small, artisan producers from the local area and beyond. The idea that has been successfully used at the Tebay services in Cumbria for 40 years.
The 4,000m2 state of the art green roof project was designed to disguise the new service station as a part of the landscape. Being a Greenfield site, flanked by the Cotswolds and Robinswood Hill, great care was required to minimise the environmental impact and blend the building into the surrounding countryside. The buildings and petrol filling station are covered by a Sky Garden Biodiverse living roof, designed to encourage local flora and fauna to flourish.
The wildflower seed mix is tailored specifically to the surrounding area and features many wild grasses that are abundant in the region; with wildflowers rich in nectar such as Self Heal, Yellow Rattle, Birdsfoot Trefoil and Meadow Sweet our aim is to support pollinating insects such as bees and preserve the heritage of our UK native wild flora habitats.
The vegetation sits on top of Sky Garden’s rigid 20mm drainage board and filter fleece. The 110mm specialist substrate supports the natural growth of the selected regional wildflower and grass mix.
The result
After seeding, the brown roof took time to develop but now the roof is looking great and blends into the surroundings as though it was never there.
Gloucester Services , Client
The first of 4 wildflower green roofs to be completed at Hilton Bankside, London. Each will feature our pre grown wildflower blanket, which consists of 38 species of native provenance wildflower and grass species, to provide year round green coverage with a colourful range of flowers in summer.
The specially selected flower species will attract many pollinators including butterflies and bees, whose numbers are in decline and are in serious need of help. By adding a wildflower green roof you not only add an attractive feature to what would otherwise be a boring waste of space, you are also helping the local wildlife to survive.
The result
Sky Garden's wildflower green roof system being used for its purpose: attracting local pollinators (especially bees) and benefiting the overall local ecosystem.
Hilton Bankside , Client
A wildflower blanket installation on a domestic roof in Sevenoaks. Burnt Wood Grove was a small domestic installation of our wildflower blanket. As you can see from the pictures, the finished roof looked stunning and should have been laid just in time for the flowering season.
We start all installions after the waterproofing contractor has signed off the roof as leak free. After that we lay our black protection fleece to ensure the hard plastic of our drainage board does not interfere or () the waterproofing membrane.
Next goes our 20mm drainage layer. This is rolled onto the roof leaving a 300mm gap at all the edges. Bonded to the top of this is a very this fleece which allows water to pass through, but stops any of the substrate from clogging the drainage board.
This is topped with a layer of specialist bio-diverse substrate. It is specially formulated to give the right amount of nutrients to allow healthy growth but to avoid one species becoming too dominant and maintain bio-diversity. Our substrate also features virgin crushed brick and other aggregates that allow free drainage and reduce the overall weight of the system.
Once the substrate has been laid to the correct depth, we add the wildflower blanket. It arrives on pallets from our farm in the Cotswolds and is unrolled within 24 hours of it being lifted to reduce stress to the plants. If the plants are less stressed they establish in their new surroundings much quicker and avoid any bare patches where the vegetation has died. By staggering the ends, as you do with lawn turf we avoid lines running across the roof. We also supply our vegetation in larger rolls than most turf rolls you get to reduce the amount of joins across the roof.
Finally we add the river stone border, which helps with drainage from the roof. It also provides a fire break, and an aesthetically pleasing finish to the edge of the roof.
The result
After watering the vegetation to kick start the establishment, we clear our tools off the roof to leave the roof looking fantastic.
Owner , Client
A wildflower green roof helps a newly constructed garage blend into the scenic backdrop of the Malvern Hills. Green roofs can be any shape or size. Large, commercial projects look impressive, but we love the smaller, domestic jobs that bring an external area to life.
We are delighted to share with you this domestic project situated in the rolling hills of Malvern. The wildflower blanket green roof system has been installed on a newly built garage at our customer's property.
The vegetation that was lost in building the garage has been replaced, and even enhanced, with the beautiful wildflower blanket that will look glorious when in bloom. The varied, vibrant flowers will really stand out with the green backdrop of the hills.
The result
As well as looking great, the wildflowers will create a habitat for local insects and birds that increases the biodiversity of the area. This is not the only benefit of a green roof like this.
Owner , Client
Kanes Foods near Evesham embarked on an ambitious investment programme which included the construction of a new salad factory topped with a 6,000m2 wildflower green roof. With its location in rural Worcestershire the new building was required to have minimal impact and blend seamlessly into the contours of the surrounding Cotswold Hills. The curved roof was a standing seam Euroclad design which required a tweak to our normal layered system.
The project was not only an innovation in salad production facilities but also the first use of our new wildflower blanket, a product that was launched towards the end of 2010.
The provenance and mix of species has been prepared in consultation with leading ecologists who are members of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and Chartered Environmentalists. The blanket supports a species assemblage that can be tailored to meet project requirements and ensure that BREEAM ECO ratings are maximised, Biodiversity Action Plan species are supported and that there is an overall gain in biodiversity, in accordance with Planning Policy Statement 9.
The result
It was this green roof that won Sky Garden the NFRC Sustainable Roof award in 2013, and is the roof that features on the cover of the Roof Overview Magazine
Kanes Food , Client
