The hanging gardens of Babylon were the inspiration for an
architect's ambition to turn the city of Beirut into a "wonder
Wassim Melki of
StudioInvisible explained to Wired.co.uk that while the concept
of rooftop gardens is far from new; he is proposing creating them
"on a very large scale" throughout the city and its suburbs. And he
is suggesting a simplified gardening approach to encourage the
rooftop garden proliferation.
"Most conventional rooftop gardens are very
complex," he explained. "They require a specific type of insulation
and drainage, and a study should be conducted on the roof slab and
how much weight it could support. Since many of the existing
buildings are more than 50 years old, we are suggesting putting the
trees in relatively large pots."
Melki adds that there is little if not no space in the city
for creating new public green spaces, and "it's almost impossible
to plant on the sidewalks or at the side of the roads". The
solution is to take to the rooftops, argues the architect, and use
the roofs of the 18,500 buildings in the city that are currently
vacant. Says Melki: "If only one tree is planted on each, that's
18,500 more trees: which is the equivalent of Central Park in New
The StudioInvisible team is currently working on a plan,
which will be presented to the Municipal powers-that-be as well as
the Ministry of the Environment at the end of this month.
In the meantime, the team are posting updates about the project on
Facebook page in a bid to get the Beirut population to go potty
about plant pots; and turn their city green.