Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2016 - 1

FROM THE FOUNDER

PERFORMANCE:

OUR GREATEST STRENGTH IS
ALSO OUR GREATEST WEAKNESS

he greatest strength of living architecture - that it delivers a multiplicity
of performance benefits - is also its
greatest weakness. For more than
15 years, North American leaders in the
green roof and wall industry have been
working to define living architecture performance: to measure that performance;
develop products that embody performance; and to identify best practices in
design, installation and maintenance that
apply to a variety of living architecture
systems.
Accomplishing these tasks has not been
easy, and our job is most certainly not
complete. Yet, while significant progress
has been made, the complexity surrounding 'performance' only appears to continue
to increase, bringing with it new challenges and opportunities. For example,
there is complexity in the sheer variety
and scope in the number of products
now on the market, and combinations
thereof; complexity in the wide range of
environments in which they are implemented from the Yukon to New Mexico;
complexity associated with living systems
and fluctuations in their performance,
depending in part on the nature of the
ongoing inputs to them. There is also
complexity in the tools and methods we
use to measure performance, with different
methods measuring the same performance
criteria sometimes producing different results. There is complexity associated with
emerging benefits tied to systems integration and the emergence of biophilic theory

READ THIS ISSUE ONLINE AT LIVINGARCHITECTUREMONITOR.COM

and practice. Finally, it is very difficult
if not downright impossible, to quantify
many of the important performance characteristics, such as beauty, or butterflies or
the benefits of establishing community in
a building.
In this issue of the LAM, we look at
performance through a variety of lenses.
We asked four award winning green
roof and wall designers to share their perspectives on performance in our On the
Roof With feature. We explore one promising aspect of system integration - between green roofs and solar photo-voltaics
(PV). This has considerable promise to
enhance the performance of both technologies, as described by Jörg Breuning,
a pioneer for more than 20 years.
Health performance and green building
is the subject of my interview with
Gail Vittori, Co-Director, Center for
Maximum Performance Building Systems,
Hanley Award Winner (2015), and a leader
who has changed the nature of green
building design by integrating health
considerations. Vittori shares with us some
of her insights and the remarkable positive
impacts of living architecture on human
health at the Dell Children's Hospital in
Austin, Texas.
Water use performance in Green
Walls is the subject of recent discussions
we've had with a USGBC Technical Advisory Committee; and Melissa Daniels
and Blaine Stand share GRHC's initial
thoughts on this performance attribute and
some of the complexities that make a one-

size-fits-all prescription rather perverse.
At the leading edge of performance,
we learn more about the production of
electricity from green roofs in a piece on
emerging technologies by Kara Orr.
We hope you enjoy the CitiesAlive Program Guide, embedded in this issue. We
head to Washington, DC this November
with our focus clearly on stormwater, a
major policy driver for our industry. Our
efforts to codify and standardize what we
know about green roof performance; how
it can be measured, accomplished and
ranked are presented in an update on the
Living Architecture Performance Tool
(LAPT) program, which now lies with
the Green Infrastructure Foundation.
David Yocca, co-chair of the LAPT Committee makes a strong case for the ongoing development of the LAPT in the
last LAM feature On Spec. The LAPT
program carries the promise of cutting
through much of the complexity and has
the potential to revolutionize and build
our industry upon an even more solid
foundation of performance.
Sincerely yours,

Steven W. Peck,
GRP, Honorary ASLA
Editor

LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR / FALL 2016 / 1

http://www.LIVINGARCHITECTUREMONITOR.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2016