The History of Green Roofs

In recent years, you may have heard the term ‘green roof’ or ‘living roof’ and probably wondered what it refers. Well, a living roof is a roof covered in grasses, flowers, turf, and sometimes even trees and shrubs.

A Storied History

In many parts of the world living room has been part of home building for thousands of years. Societies such as the Babylonians, Norse and even early European pioneers in Canada have used green roofs for thousands of years.

The historical living roofs main purpose was to provide insulation. Modern living roofs, however, provide both insulations as well as a way of building more environmentally friendly homes.

The current version of the living roof has its roots in 1970s Germany. There, architects, there were having trouble creating and maintaining strong roofing against strong wind and rainstorms, the country faced. One of the proposed solutions was the installation of green roofs whereby the plants’ roots and soil would absorb the excess rainwater and protect the roofing foundation.

Widespread Introduction

By the 1980s, the green roofs were particularly widespread in Germany but quite literally unknown in the rest of the world. The rest of the world came to adopt green roofing in the late 1990s because of a rising interest in green architecture. Today many cities all over the world have many great examples of green roofs whose owners are always eager to give tours.

Introducing The Wallbarn M-Tray®

M-Tray® is a ready-grown, fully established sedum, sedum-and-wildflower or wildflower-only green roof loaded into a portable tray, for an easier installation of green roofs.

Our new, improved design for the M-Tray® modular green roof system is a  pre-grown sedum green roof product that is supplied in easy-to-handle plastic tray units.

A fully established, a mature green roof can be installed quickly and easily on difficult-to-access roofs by hand without the mess and disruption associated with traditional extensive green roof systems.

All the growing, filtration and drainage elements are included in the system and the shape of the modules means that each one is simply laid onto the deck and clipped to the next module to create one seamless, fully established green roof.

For more on the M-Tray® modular green roof system from Wallbarn, please click here.