Malaysia's Hanging garden of BABYLON?

The Star on Tuesday has an interesting article of a garden on the roof. Maybe unlike the hanging gardens of Babylon?

I remember when the former Malaysian Minister of Agriculture, Tan Sri Sanusi Junid suggeseted planting paddy on rooftops, many were cynical and just laughed at him.

He should be smiling now as a garden is blooming at the roof top of the new wing of the 1-Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya, some 35 m from the ground.

The garden ( about 2,787sqm,), planted with some 500 species of rare tropical and temperate plants, has recently been opened to the public on weekends.

1-Utama director Datuk Teo Chiang Kok, an avid gardener, was reported to say, “Having a green roof insulates and blocks heat from the roof, thereby decreasing the air-conditioning required to cool the building. (This) allows 1-Utama to conserve energy and be environmentally responsible,”.

The soil mix used for the garden’s flower bed – granulated horticultural carbon – is a planting medium derived from light, compacted and carbonised sawdust that puts to use wood waste that would otherwise be rotting in dumpsites and releasing carbon. This is a green technology developed by a botanist Dr Francis Ng.

“The horticultural carbon is being tested with different plants. The most amazing result is with rice that is grown in containers. It shows that the usual way (submerging rice plants) is not the only way to grow rice.

Unfortunately, the horticultural carbon is not commercially available yet although Ng is trying to encourage the manufacturer and 1-Utama to look into commercial production.

Although the Department of Irrigation and Drainage’s Stormwater Management Manual was introduced in 2001, it remains only a guideline. Commercial building developers are not legally required to implement it in their projects.)

The owners of 1- Utama has led the way by collecting rainwater to water the garden.
The rainwater is diverted from the roof and stored in specially built reservoirs in the basement in all Bandar Utama commercial buildings, namely the extended wing of 1-Utama Shopping Centre, the Centrepoint Neighbourhood Centre, the IBM-KPMG Plaza and the One World Hotel. The harvested water is used for flushing toilets, watering plants and also supplied to the cooling tower of the air-conditioning system.

“However, the rainwater collected is not sufficient to flush all the toilets. It only saves us 30% of the total water consumption in the new wing,” says Alfred Chong, landscape manager of Bandar Utama City Centre, the subsidiary of Bandar Utama Group which manages the commercial units.

The company’s pioneering effort closely follows the growing importance given to rooftop space by city authorities worldwide.

Last month, Toronto (in Canada) approved a bylaw that requires new residential units over six storeys, schools as well as commercial and industrial buildings to have up to 50% green roof coverage. Chicago (in the United States) offers incentives to builders who put green roofs on their buildings.

It has been estimated that if all the roofs in a major city were “greened,” urban temperatures could be reduced by as much as 7°C.

Originally, a green roof was one where vegetation partially or completely cover the roof surface over a water-proofing membrane.But the term has since taken on an expanded meaning to include green technologies that are introduced on that space, like harvesting of rainwater and harnessing solar energy through a photovoltaic panel.

High rise dwellers will soon be growing their food on roof tops next. Tan Sri Sanusi's dream has come true! Now who's laughing?