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Rooftop Gardens--Urban Crops, Urban Oases   (February 15, 2006)


Regular readers know that I do not find any evidence that highrise towers are a satisfactory way to increase density. Much better is a uniform four-to-six story streetscape, for such a height does not darken the streets or create a highly energy-inefficient sink of elevators, glass walls and costly infrastructure.

In addition to these benefits, low-rise buildings allow for rooftop gardens, which perhaps surprisingly, can provide both significant amount of vegetables and measurable reductions in air pollution. In addition to these benefits, such urban gardens also create oases of green in a gray urban world--an attribute which is hard to quantify but which we can all feel in an immediate, almost genetically progammed fashion.

Here are some interesting links to more information on rooftop gardens:

rooftop gardens

rooftop gardens reduce smog

greenroofs.com


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copyright © 2006 Charles Hugh Smith. All rights reserved in all media.

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