5th Great Asian Streets Symposium:

A Public Forum of Asian Urban Design

FUTURE | ASIAN | SPACE

PROCEEDINGS
DECEMBER 05-07 2008
NATIONALUNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Organised & Published by:

Department of Architecture
School of Design and Environment
National University of Singapore
Editors:
Davisi Boontharm
Erwin Viray
Limin Hee
Zdravko Trivic, assistant

GASS 2008 Designer:

Tan Chun Liang

Organised & Published by:

Centre for Advanced Studies in Architecture (CASA)
Department of Architecture No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any
School of Design and Environment retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
National University of Singapore electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher, Centre for
Held at: Advanced Studies in Architecture (CASA), National University of
Department of Architecture Singapore.
National University of Singapore
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury
and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products
Date: December 2008 liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of
ISBN: 978-981-08-2012-1 any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the
material herein.
Proceedings CD
ISBN: 978-981-08-2013-8 Printed in Singapore
- 130 -
Living Skins for Metropolises: A for reducing stormwater runoff, residential water
consumption, and energy demand.
Comparison of Environmental Benefits
by Green Roofs, Green Streets and Research results demonstrate that in downtown
Green Façades between Vancouver, B.C. Vancouver extensive green roofs could reduce runoff from
roofs by 29%; intensive green roofs, however, require
and Shanghai, P.R. China irrigation in summer and are therefore not appropriate as a
stormwater management method or tool. Greening 25% of
DANIEL ROEHR ¹, KEVIN YUEWEI KONG ² the city areas with green streets could reduce 51% of the
total site runoff, and recycling rainwater from roofs would
greenskins_lab, Design Centre for Sustainability, be sufficient to supply all the household water use by
School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, residents.
University of British Columbia
#385-2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC,
Due to the climatic condition in Shanghai, both extensive
Canada. V6T 1Z4
¹ roehrd@interchange.ubc.ca and intensive green roofs would be appropriate as
² kevin.kong@shaw.ca stormwater management strategies. Extensive green roofs
could reduce runoff from roofs by 28%, and intensive
green roofs by 55%. Greening 25% of the city areas with
green streets could reduce 35% of the total site runoff, and
Abstract. This research focuses on the environmental recycling rainwater from roofs could reduce residential
benefits derived from an overall “living skins” intervention water consumption by 71%.
[green roofs, green streets, and green façades] in cities.
Through the analysis of a case study area in Vancouver, it
initiates a methodology to quantify the contributions of
such a green intervention to ameliorating the
environmental impacts of cities. It then explores the
methodology by applying it to a large, high-density city:
Shanghai, P.R. China, which has distinct climatic
conditions compared with Vancouver, B.C. By a
comparison between downtown Shanghai, P.R. China and
downtown Vancouver, BC, this research shows the
potential of green roofs, green streets, and green façades