Project / Pilot Cases
LLEIDA
Green Infrastructure enterprise: ZINCO
Extensive green rooftop of a kinder garden located in the urban area of Lleida. Failed because of lack of maintenance, it doesn’t provide ecosystem services nowadays. BIG4LIFE will partially refurbish around 200 m2
Architect: BR29, Pàmpols + Montserrat Giné Architects
Green Infrastructure enterprise: ACSA (Sorigué)
Biodiverse, irrigation‑free green roof located on a building in downtown Lleida. The BIG4LIFE project has carried out improvement and cleaning work, removing deteriorated plastic from between the gravel and planting beds, adding higher‑quality substrate, and replanting with locally sourced sedums.
New elements have been reviewed and added to enhance biodiversity, including insect hotels, nest boxes, a small water pond, and several logs to provide shelter for wildlife. The camera trap has also been reinstalled to continue monitoring activity in the area.
BARCELONA
Successful semi-extensive green rooftop of a collective facility for the integration of mentally disabled people located in an urban restructuring area in Barcelona. It is maintained and partially monitored. The rooftop enhances de biodiversity in the neighbourhood, attracting insects, birds, and small reptiles. It stores CO2 and suspended particles responsible for air pollution. It diminishes the heat island effect and produces energy savings because of a better thermic behaviour of the building
Green Infrastructure enterprise: TEB Verd Cooperative
Successful green roof of the offices of a logistic site located in an industrial district of Barcelona under urban restructuring. It’s well maintained and partially monitored. The rooftop improves the quality of air and the thermic conditions in the office beneath it. It also captures CO2 and reduces noise. It attracts multiple species of birds and invertebrates. Several participative activities of environmental education are organized in the rooftop.
Green Infrastructure enterprise: Verdtical. In 2022 Vivers Ter took care of the maintenance
Successful semi-extensive green roof of a school located in the dense urban extension (Eixample) of central Barcelona. It is properly maintained and partially monitored. It provides many ecological services: locally-sourced food thanks to a vegetable garden, climate data by a weather station, biodiversity through an insect’s hotel, clean energy produced by solar panels, water recycling thanks to a system to collect, store, and reuse rainwater. Such services contribute both to the naturalization of the city and to the environmental education of school children.
Designers of green roof: Espai Qbic Arquitectura
Green Infrastructure enterprise: Eixverd and SESAC14
BIG8 / Tibidabo
Partially successful green wall of the office Building in the leisure park of Tibidabo located in hilltop of Barcelona. The green façade has a clear effect on the indoor climatic conditions in the offices, but they are not monitored yet. There is also an underground tank to store rainwater, but it has not been working yet. The park has also many daily visitors that will enjoy the wellbeing effects of the green wall. It can also serve to environmental education activities. In terms of biodiversity, reduction of urban heat island, capture of CO2 and air quality, the effects of the green wall are low compared to the forest where the leisure park is located.
Architect: BR29, Pàmpols + Montserrat Giné Architects
Green Infrastructure enterprise: ACSA (Sorigué)
EL PRAT DEL LLOBREGAT
Green rooftop of a cultural public facility located in El Prat de Llobregat, a municipality next to Barcelona. Failed because of lack of maintenance, it doesn’t provide ecosystem services nowadays. BIG4LIFE will completely refurbish it as an extensive green roof.
Green Infrastructure entreprise: Massoni Gardening
WARSAW
Semi-extensive green roof located on the “Innovative Centre for Food Sciences” at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW). The BIG project consists of terraces at various levels of the building, with three types of vegetation on each terrace: sedum carpet, rockery plants, and meadow. Each terrace also has relaxation areas and pedestrian walkways.
BIG4LIFE replication: Members of the SGGW and the BIG4LIFE team are working together to implement the EU Networking Plan for Maintenance of BIG systems and the EU Networking Plan for Monitoring and Evaluation of BIG system impacts.