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While cities like Dubai build giant high-rises by choice, other cities like Tokyo, Japan build skyscrapers out of necessity. Simply said, there's no more land to go around.
With every available piece of property developed in the congested city, the Japanese have seen their average annual temperature increase by more than three degrees. This so-called "heat island effect" has alarmed the city's metropolitan government to impose a new rule regarding new and rehabilitative commercial construction. All buildings must go green.This means that the owners and developers of Tokyo's concrete jungle must submit plans for the inclusion of rooftop gardens, lawns, trees and other plants along with their architectural design documents to city officials before being granted a building permit.
Japanese Architect Kenji Ichinomiya, who studied at the U.S.'s Frank Loyd Wright Taliesin Institute, welcomes the government-mandated green initiative. "Buildings go up and up," he says. "But if we can make artificial 'ground' on the rooftops and cover them with plants, this will make a better environment for everyone. And new technology is so developed, we can now build rooftops that won't leak."
My dad has been building commercial buildings for nearly three generations now, and he has yet to come across a roof that won't leak, even when it doesn't have a layer of soil laid on top of it. However, if what Ichinomiya states is correct and a unique leak-free tech is being developed for these new green rooftops, then the Japanese could be on to a green and sustainable idea that might just become the standard for the rest of the world to follow.
But how much cost would be added to a commercial design by making the rooftops not only green, but by instituting the leak-free technology to make them work? How much will it cost to maintain the roofscapes? Should government's mandate green rooftops for high-rises? Or should it remain the choice of the developer or owner?
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Re: Tokyo's Tall Green Order
