Winery's New Roof a living system
09 Nov 2011
Southern Rural Life: source article at:
http://digital.southernrurallife.co.nz/olive/ode/srl_daily/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=U1JMLzIwMTEvMTEvMDk.&pageno=NA..&entity=QXIwMDQwMA..&view=ZW50aXR5
A small nursery near Roxburgh has been awarded a contract to plant and establish a 900sq m ‘‘living roof’’ using 15,000 to 20,000 tussocks, grasses, thyme and sedums, for Mt Difficulty winery’s new barrel storage facility.
Central Otago Property Services owner operator Adrian Dance, of Dumbarton, near Roxburgh, said he had been approached by ‘‘LiveRoof’’ New Zealand distributor Stormwater360’s director, Greg Yeoman, several months ago to plant the roof, and he jumped at the opportunity.
‘‘It is the biggest project we have ever taken on,’’ Mr Dance said.
He has employed an extra person in part to help with the project.
He said 5000 trays, which were part of the modular system and would sit on the roof, were due from the United States within the next few weeks.
When they arrived, they would be laid out in his paddock and filled with a soil/pumice mixture, and between 15,000 to 20,000 plants suitable for Central Otago conditions would be established.
The initial planting would probably take about two weeks and he hoped the plants would have about 70% cover by February/March, when the roof was to be installed.
He thought the roof would weigh about 180kg/sq m when wet and it would catch and slow stormwater runoff, which would be absorbed by the plants and soil. ‘‘It will blend in with the environment and there is no reflection.’’
Mt Difficulty winemaker and general manager Matt Dicey said the winery was making a ‘‘significant capital investment’’ in the building project, which included the barrel storage facility and upgrading their cellar door. Contractors had already started to lay the foundations. ‘‘We are very excited about it,’’ Mr Dicey said.
The living roof was ‘‘relatively new technology’’ but there were one or two hotels in Queenstown that had similar ones.
It would help maintain stable temperatures within the storage facility, he said. ‘‘It will be, effectively, similar to a cave and will help with temperature modifications.’’
He said the roof could also be used for functions, as it was ‘‘live load designed’’. The roof was designed to blend in with the surrounding landscape, limiting impact on the environment. Two of the storage facility’s walls would run into the neighbouring hillside and planting would carry on up the bank.
Mr Dicey said they have asked Jo Wakelin, of Otago Polytechnic, to design and revegetate the hill• side. About 3500 plants would be planted on the 1ha area during the next 18 months to two years.
‘‘At the moment we have just go browntop grass, but we want to show what the environment was like during pre•European and some pre Maori [times].’’
He said the plantings would help offset the winery’s carbon emis• sions.
‘‘Part of the aim is to move towards carbon neutrality, although that is a nebulous term at this point.
‘‘We are very much custodians of the land and our winery has an active life of about 60 to 80 years, so what we are doing here is trying to provide a better place for the future.’’
Mr Yeoman said the system had been imported from the United States, where green roofs were popular.
‘‘In some New York buildings, you can get huge market gardens with chickens and beehives on the roofs,’’ he said.
‘‘They have been used for 50 years in Europe.’’ Mr Yeoman said that while the roof required little maintenance, one of the key issues was the weight, which would range from 100kg/sq m to 180kg/sq m depend• ing on design and tray depth. ‘‘Mt Difficulty has allowed 200kg/sq m loading,’’ Mr Yeoman said. ‘‘The system is very good at removing stormwater from roofs and reducing the volume of water going into the pipes.
‘‘The bonus for Mt Difficulty is it is really good insulation and will keep the temperatures [in the barrel room] more stable.’’
Mr Yeoman said they had created their own lightweight inorganic soil mix using pumice and volcanic ash from the North Island. ‘‘If you have too much organic material, it will break down and lose the air out of the soil and we will also get a lot of weeds. It is more towards a hydroponic type mix.’’
He said they added controlled release fertiliser to the mix and when they did their annual main• tenance checks, they added more if necessary.He said the living roofs could also be used for residential homes and cost between $200 and $300 a square metre.