Green Roof Project – Instituto Dois Irmãos_

Rocinha_ Rio de Janeiro_ Brazil

Introduction

Rocinha, a favela of more than 200,000 inhabitants in Rio de Janeiro's south zone,
was built along the side of a steep cliff, urbanizing the natural environment that came
before. In Rocinha, the streets are public spaces where green areas are almost
nonexistant. This presents us with the opportunity to think about the potential of the
concrete or ceramic-tiled rooftops of the houses, normally used as terraces and places
to hang clothes. This is the case at the Instituto Dois Irmãos. After long
conversations, studies, and preliminary plans, the institute came up with the idea of
building a garden on the roof. The idea would have the potential to be a model for
the institute's neighbors.

The project has to account for the fact that the roof is also used as a space for classes,
especially dance, physical education, art, and photography. The end result should be
a simple design for building a green roof while maximizing space and resources.

The green roof project must also take into consideration another plan for an awning
made of bamboo intended to keep the roof dry so classes can continue when it rains.
The proposal then is a space with two functions: a) an intermediate space, open and
closed at the same time and b) a room for classes.

For these reasons the garden is intended to optimize the largest amount of space and
to harmonize the space with the garden's vegetation.

This project will be carried out in three phases so that we can use it to cultivate
plants at the same time.

The first phase is the preliminary construction of the project. The second phase is
the construction of scaffolding and containers for seed cultivation and third phase is
to plant and irrigate the plants. These phases will be explained later in greater detail.