12 Aug

Spain's Rooftop Gardens Take The Bus...Literally

Written by Jolene Borrelli
font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email
Video

« Previous Next »

A whole new concept in eco-friendly travel.

Watch out rooftop green spaces, there is a new hydroponic garden in town. Designers in Spain have one upped even the craftiest hydroponic growers today by installing soiless gardens atop city buses. Buses in Girona, Spain are sporting the new look, replete with succulents, mosses and ornamental grasses, as a prototype that could soon replace their normal roofs. Marc Granan, the landscape designer responsible for the project, brought the idea to life as a response to the lack of green areas within most major metropolises.

Granan's company, PhytoKinetic, thought that these cities could benefit from a plant's ability to purify the air and began fitting buses with a lightweight hydroponic foam. Since Girona's climate is so warm, the foam mainly holds humidity which is generated from air coniditioners fixed to the vehicle's roof. The foam drains easily during rainy days and receives more water on hot days since the air conditioners will be on for longer periods of time and thus produce more condensation.

Granan hopes to see his idea sprout up in diffferent cities with the plant selection modified according to climate.