Green Roof Competition

The City of Greater Geelong, Geelong Manufacturing Council, state government and Deakin University worked together to rejuvenate the city’s landscape through the Green Roof Competition.

Incorporating gardens on our city’s rooftops helps rejuvenate the landscape making the spaces liveable, sustainable and more productive. Geelong’s north facing aspect and low-terraced skyline makes our city uniquely placed to become a national leader in green roofs.

The competition invited commercial building owners and occupants to explore innovative ways of incorporating rooftop gardens throughout Geelong.  Students from Deakin University’s Landscape Architecture Masters program assisted with the green roof designs and residents were invited to vote for a ‘People’s Choice Award’ for the garden designs.

The designs were exhibited for the month of January 2017 at the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre, Little Malop Street, Geelong.

There were six entrants registered in the competition:

1. The Black Shed, North Geelong
2. GMHBA, Central Geelong
3. TAC, Central Geelong
4. T&G Building, Central Geelong
5. A tenanted warehouse space, Newtown
6. Barwon Water, Central Geelong  

Congratulations to the following Deakin University students whose garden designs were judged:

The Green Roof Competition was driven by Future Proofing Geelong and supported by Cleantech Innovations Geelong. The Overall Winner of the design phase received a $300 book voucher and the other student prize winners received a $150 book voucher.

Competition entrants (the commercial building occupants) have installed their green roof spaces.

During Melbourne Design Week in Geelong 2019, the City of Greater Geelong and the Geelong Manufacturing Council hosted a tour of the green rooftops that were installed as part of the competition.  The tour was sold out with over 35 participants coming from Geelong, Melbourne and as far away as New Zealand to see the green rooftops.

This tour included stops at four of the built outcomes from the competition: the GMHBA building (on the corner of Moorabool and Corio Streets), the T&G Building (Deakin University student residences), the Barwon Water building on Ryrie St and The Black Shed Project in North Geelong. A display of the rooftop garden designs and planting schemes generated by the Deakin University Masters of Landscape Architecture students featured as part of the tour along with talks on the importance of green rooftops.

Background to the competition

Green Roofs Geelong was a Leaders for Geelong (a Committee for Geelong initiative) project which aimed to raise awareness of green roofs, green walls and rooftop gardens amongst building owners in the Geelong Central Business District.  The project was completed in early 2014 and leveraged off existing green roof initiatives operating in other Australian cities.  It galvanised the foundation of support for green rooftops in Geelong.

The Green Roof Geelong project team’s mission was to ‘Establish a base level of interest in green building infrastructure in the Geelong Central Business District through awareness raising, establishing partnerships with key stakeholders and encouraging uptake by early adopters through planning and design support.

The Green Roof Geelong project objectives were to:

• raise awareness amongst building owners in Geelong’s Central Business District of green roofs, green walls and rooftop gardens and their benefits through Geelong’s first Green Roof Seminar
• develop concept plans for a green building infrastructure solution on three existing buildings by December 2013
• develop a Green Building Infrastructure Assessment Tool that will assist building owners to make decisions on potential solutions and
• establish a formal ongoing commitment to green building infrastructure from key stakeholder agencies.

The Rooftop Garden Competition picked up where the Green Roofs Geelong project left off.  It provided an opportunity to re-engage with stakeholders and establish a number of innovative, low cost, locally supplied, green rooftops. 

A good example of an effective, low cost, green roof has been established by GMHBA in Moorabool Street, Geelong. 

GMHBA established a rooftop vegetable garden, which is maintained by employees. The intent is that the garden encourages wellbeing, and engagement with the broader community along with local social and environmental issues. Fresh produce from the rooftop garden is donated to the Christ Church Community Meals Program to use in the evening meals for those facing food insecurity. This example was used to inspire others during the Rooftop Garden Competition.