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Classroom Challenge Rooftop Garden Design Challenge By Harry T. Roman Any good design has plenty of illustrations, artist’s renderings, top/side/perspective drawings, and assorted projections of what the physical reality of the design might look like. Introduction A small commercial building in a nearby industrial park has decided to install a rooftop garden for its employees to enjoy. The garden will be about 100 feet long and 75 feet wide. The company has heard about your school’s technology and engineering education program and is impressed, and has asked you to consider having your students assist with the initial conceptual design and concerns with planning the garden. Are you and the students ready for this challenge? Getting Started The best way to start any open-ended design like this is to consider the basic questions that are likely to arise in the mind of the company. So let’s make a list of the things we anticipate will be of importance to the company. • Can the roof and building structure support the added weight of soil, plants, and other items to be installed there? And the water to be absorbed by the soils? • Are there to be only plants in the garden or small trees and shrubs as well? • If natural rain is insufficient, is there a water supply that can be tapped from the building? • Will there be walkways and places to sit or maybe eat lunch in the garden? • Who will tend and maintain the garden after it is functional? 16 • Technology and Engineering Teacher • September 2010
This phase of the rooftop garden should conclude with a summary report of the concerns and past experiences with rooftop gardens and a bibliography of references cited. If time permits, the students might even make a formal oral presentation to company managers about what they have found out in the first phase of their work. Can the roof and building structure support the added weight of soil, plants, and other items to be installed? These first few questions are pretty “technical” in nature, so don’t forget to include other concerns as well, such as: • Does this alteration of the building affect any of the local municipal codes for fire, safety, building construction, and public appearance? • Is a special permit or variance needed from the town? • Are there building insurance impacts and additional premium fees as a result of the rooftop garden? • Will there be a need for additional safety measures for the employees who visit the garden? • How might this new employee facility affect their work habits? Making a Design Case Teams of students can now begin developing some initial designs for the rooftop garden. It would be helpful to keep in mind that the students are to be involved in the early concept and planning stages, which generally means the customer (the company in this case) may not have a firm idea of what it wants. Perhaps the best way to approach this design challenge is to have different student teams develop different design themes. For instance, how about some design team themes such as: • A relaxation garden to promote employee creativity • A lunch-hour respite garden • An open-air meeting garden for company team meetings • A multipurpose and recreational garden • An active garden where employees can tend the plants Now students may begin the actual design phase, turning the design themes listed above into exciting visual formations, accompanied by good written supporting descriptions. These two lists above are not necessarily complete. There are probably other concerns that should be itemized and discussed. Give this initial thinking time plenty of room, letting the students feel comfortable with being a “consultant” to the company. To help spur student thinking on this design challenge, the students can visualize what it would be like to have such a facility on their own school roof. What might their principal and administrative staff be concerned about in such a case? They should also check the literature for what has been done in the past with rooftop garden designs. Are there architects who specialize in this, whose work can be referenced? Is this a field of study in architectural schools? Are there architects or a school of architecture from which an expert may visit the class and provide some firsthand information? Literature searches via Internet or traditional library sources are, of course, also strongly encouraged. Students are free to use hand drawings, computer-generated images, or sketches to get their ideas across in an understandable way. 17 • Technology and Engineering Teacher • September 2010
Page 1 and 2: DESIGN SQUAD (NEW!) • SUPER MILEA
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September - Vol 70, No 1 - International Technology and ...

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