New step towards museum's grassed roof

Work on the roof of the Orange Regional Museum this week is bringing the project one step closer to the prospect of grass growing across the top of the new landmark building.

Staff from Junglefy, a Sydney-based firm which specialises in green walls, roofs and hanging gardens are installing the system which will support the grass, both on the flat roof and stop soil and grass washing off the museum roof during heavy rain.

Junglefy site manager Johan Kusuma said a system called geo-webbing is being installed. On the flat section of the roof, the framework is around 80 mm high while on the sloping section the framework is around 200 mm high.

The geo-webbing is “designed to hold the soil or the growing media and to stop it washing away during heavy rain,” Johan Kusuma said.

Alongside the museum’s flat roof, the building's sloping roof is built at an angle of 23 degrees.

“Junglefy is specialist in green roof and green walls systems. We’ve just worked on Barangaroo on the Sydney harbour foreshore,” Johan Kusuma said.

“There’s lots of sustainable ideas behind building a green roof and Australia is at the forefront of that.”

“The turf and 400 mm of soil is all going to help the building’s insulation:”

“It’s very progressive of Orange City Council and it’s a good step forward.”

Once the framework is completed, it’s expected that the layer of specially formulated soil will be pumped onto the roof next week, followed by the laying of turf.

FRAMEWORK : Junglefy site manager Johan Kusuma is pictured with the system of webbing held in place by cables, which will support the grassed roof of the Orange Regional Museum.