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November 2008
guest feature
article
Modern Green Roof Technology Literally Shipped from Germany!
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The Lawn Club on Celebrity Solstice. |
By Jörg Breuning,
Green Roof Expert and Consultant
November 24, 2008
Photos Courtesy
Jörg Breuning, unless otherwise noted.
More
than 10 years ago Maryland based Green Roof Service LLC started to
educate Americans about modern green roof technology and today many key
players in the market rely on my partner, Peter Philippi's, and my
experience. I believe we are the link between the continents as we
provide the knowledge which helps America get up to the same knowledge
level of advanced green roof technology as found in Germany.
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What a view of Port
Everglades from The Lawn Club
on Celebrity Solstice! |
Green Roof Service
LLC’s latest project pushes the limits even further and arguably, I
believe it will be the most interesting project in the world! In
September, 2008, we installed 15,000 sf of green roof on the cruise ship
Celebrity Solstice at Meyer Werft (Ship Yard), in Germany. We literally
shipped a green roof from Germany to the U.S., and soon it will sail all
across the world. After 10 days of sea trials and nearly two weeks of
harsh weather on the successful Atlantic crossing to Port Everglades,
Florida, we just got back from the inaugural cruise of the Solstice
after sailing three days in the Bahamas.
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The Vision of the Lawn Club on Celebrity
Solstice; Graphics Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises. |
When Celebrity
Solstice launches in December, 2008, vacationers will find that the
grass really is greener on a Celebrity Cruises vacation. The ship will
present an industry first on the top deck of the ship: real, growing
grass, set in an innovative new country club environment known as “The
Lawn Club.” The Lawn Club on Celebrity Solstice invites guests to
enjoy bocce, croquet and picnic with wine and cheese. “Feel the grass
between your toes or practice your putting,” promises the advertising of
Celebrity Cruises.
Ship Facts
Occupancy: 2,850
Tonnage: 122,000
Length: 1,033 ft
Beam: 121 ft
Draught: 27 ft
Cruise Speed: 24 kts
Inaugural Revenue Cruise Date: November 23, 2008
But Let’s Start from the Beginning
In April, 2008,
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Celebrity Cruises awarded Green Roof
Service LCC the contract to design, engineer, install and maintain a
green roof on their largest ship ever built in Germany – the Celebrity
Solstice. Under the wing of AMT, Green Roof Service LLC subcontracted
the installation to Borchers GmbH Company in Papenburg, Germany. “We
just installed a green roof on an office building at Meyer Werft and now
we continue on their ships,” joked Bernhard Mescher, engineer at
Borchers Company.
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Borchers GmbH Company in Papenburg, Germany
with me in the middle.
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Richard D. Fain,
Chairman of Celebrity Cruises said, “Everything about the Celebrity
Cruises brand is authentic. Our vision for a completely genuine
experience demanded nothing less than real grass, and we sought out the
right innovation to make that vision a reality.”
Realizing the
need for authenticity, flexibility and durability in this unusual and
highly demanding design, Uwe Harzmann, CEO at Optigreen AG assured, “We
are able to modify our components and we will meet all requirements
including the FLL Guidelines (German
Green Roof Guidelines - Forschungsgesellschaft Landschaftsbau
Landschaftsentwicklung e.V).”
The list of requirements had more than 100 items and many things seemed
contrary to one another. See the English
FLL page
here
Considerations of Sea, Wide Ranging Climates, Fire and Wind Resistance,
Stability, and Aesthetics
Here were some of
the most important key requirements and considerations for designing a
sea-faring green roof:
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The layer set-up
must support the Arctic, Northern Europe, Mediterranean and tropical
weather conditions.
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Fire prevention
to meet international marine fire standards.
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Wind resistant
for wind speeds 100 mph and wind gusts over 120 mph.
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Stable against
sliding - ship tilts up to 12° or 27%
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Highly salt
tolerant
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Environmental
friendly materials and run-off behavior.
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Maximum weight:
130 metric tons.
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Prime turf grass
for activities like Bocce, croquet and golf putting.
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Resistant for
foot traffic.
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Comprehensive
set-up to exchange grass easy and fast.
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Maintenance
program, physically fit and well trained lawn keepers.
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The Lawn Club: Left to Right - Peter Philippi, the two lawn
keepers, me, and Doc Cisar. |
After two years of
testing at the University of Florida with Dr. John Cisar on the
Celebrity Galaxy cruise ship with a test plot at the Port of Miami and
one in Papenburg, the key setup for The Lawn Club was developed and then
the grass species were chosen.
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Left: Installing subsurface
and surface irrigation; Right: The modified drainage layer. |
Green Roof Statistics:
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Type: Intensive
with pre grown vegetative grass mats.
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System: Custom
engineered with modified Optigreen AG components.
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Thickness
overall: 5 inches.
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Drainage layer:
1 ½ inch modified Optigreen FKD 40 Drainage board.
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Growing media
from Germany: Optigreen custom blend with 530 kg/cbm dry and 850kg/cbm
saturated weights.
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2 dimensional
geo grid as reinforcement.
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Vegetated grass
mats: Soil-free turf of Agrostis stolonifera L93, or creeping Bentgrass (a cold season grass). Mowing Height: 10-15 mm.
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4-way irrigation
system utilizing:
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Subsurface
trickle irrigation – special piping from Israel;
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Surface
irrigation with water saving sprinklers;
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Hand
watering;
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Natural rain;
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24/7 maintenance
by a highly trained golf superintendant from the Philippines.
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State-of-the-art
turf maintenance machines – all rechargeable battery powered.
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Organic
fertilizers and liquid fertilizers for “spoon feeding.”
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System and
components in accordance to FLL guidelines.
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Roof: welded
steel deck with root and chemical resistant coating.
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20 cubic meter
tank to retain run-off from vegetated area.
Logistical Challenges
When sitting on the
Solstice on the grass
of The Lawn Club in the Sunset Bar, guests will also enjoy spectacular
views in a relaxed atmosphere 120 ft above sea
level. Everything looks nice, green and beautiful and no one could even
imagine the construction challenges we encountered along the way. The
Solstice is the largest passenger ship ever built in Germany and keep in mind that
the ship yard is 50 miles off shore. Getting the materials up on deck
15 stories high within a two week time frame from a ship yard where more than
2,500 people and more than 50 contractors were working all at the same
time, while hundreds of containers were being loaded sounds like an impossible
endeavor, right? Yet Meyer Werft built the $750 Million Solstice in
only 10 months – where time is money and everybody and everything had to work
24/7.
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Left: Bringing up the growing
media; Right: Spreading the engineered soil mix. |
In October, the
passage from the ship yard to the North Sea on the dammed-up river Ems
was the ship’s first big event. Hundreds of thousands of people
followed the ship by bicycle, on foot, car, camper or boat over 24
hours. Bridges were rebuilt to widen the passage and the river was dug
deeper to make sure no propeller hit the bottom. The 140 metric ton
weight of the green roof lowered the Solstice one inch deeper into the
water – and although one inch may not sound like a big deal, it was a
big challenge for the engineers.
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Left: Laying the sod; Right:
We're getting there! A view in the middle of the turf
grass installation process. |
Sea Trials
Arriving at the
North Sea port in Eemshaven, The Netherlands, and now equipped with more
materials, the ship was ready to begin sea trials where everything from
the ship would undergo extreme tests. The owner and captain had to
prove that the ship met specifications (high speed, braking tests,
incline tests, minimum radius, etc.). The ship fared well and so did
the green roof!
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The Celebrity Solstice sailing out to the North Sea, trying
the waters and the new ship. |
We met all the
requirements just one week after installation and here are some trial
results:
During the 15°
incline test nothing moved – everything stayed in place. With 100
miles/hour winds along the Norwegian coast, there was not a single
failure of the system and even 50 foot waves (with a salt content 10
times more than what people usually put on their breakfast eggs) didn’t
have an impact. We did not experience one single blade of grass damage
or with the set-up of the green roof. Since the temperatures were
around 35-55° F, the growth of the grass roots was slow but constant and
steady as expected. Helpful was the fact that “cold” water on a ship
means around 55-60° F.
Throughout the sea
trials the half-acre Lawn Club on Celebrity Solstice performed nicely
and without complications; now we were ready for the big crossing over
the Atlantic Ocean to Port Everglades, Florida.
A
Salty Sea Crossing
Quoting the words of
Dan Hanrahan, President and CEO of Celebrity Cruises, “We want our
guests to experience the unexpected, like the thrill of sinking a putt
on a freshly manicured lawn in the middle of the ocean.”
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On the inaugural cruise to
the Bahamas.
Left: Putting in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean; Right:
Dan Hanrahan, President
and CEO of Celebrity Cruises. |
We expected and
experienced the unexpected in the middle of our Atlantic crossing – we
knew that icebergs were encountered much further north of our route, but our route
was also famous for presenting four seasons in one day. After the first
nice day the four seasons were ready to be sampled, and the temperatures
dropped close to freezing while the wind was picking up constant speeds
of 30-50 miles. Neither hail nor snow was noted in the log book but on
one day a tremendous impact of salt was experienced on the port side of
the ship. Approximately 200g /smtr (1 oz/sf) fell down in clumps from
the ship’s awnings and burned holes in the grass over night. This meant
that permanent hand watering of critical areas was part of the daily
tasks to save the grass. Abnormal wind loads and 40% humidity caused
wilting of the grass and so the irrigation timer was set to water at
maximum levels. Yet even with the extra water, run-off was hardly
measurable.
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Left: Canopies over The Lawn
Club;
Right: Close up right after installation. |
With the
environmental parameters changing every hour, it truly was a 24/7, full
time job monitoring this exceptional project. For all of us, and
especially for Dr. John Cisar, it was a unique, once-in-a-lifetime
research experience where we found out that even seemingly small things
can have a big effect under extreme conditions.
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Left: A side view of The Lawn
Club with
individuals planters;
Right: Here I'm checking on the health of the turf. |
While getting closer
to Florida, The Lawn Club, which is the central element of the top deck
on the Celebrity Solstice, was being challenged from the harsh
environment. Temperatures were increasing and getting over 80° F, and
we were having some sleepless nights. The canopy of the grass needs to
be cooled down when getting over 85° F since Agrostis stolonifera is a
cold season grass, and so the transition from a cold to a hot climate needed
to evolve slowly. Fortunately, we only had one day with extreme high
temperatures and the following days were cooler – which also cooled down everybody’s stress level, too.
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Left: Side view;
Right: Irrigation controls were set for maximum coverage to
ensure survivability. |
The Celebrity
Solstice embraces many eco-responsible elements and she sets the bar very
high when it comes to sustainability. In addition to the half-acre
green roof, here are some other environmentally-friendly features:
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Entire ship with
mostly LED lightning technology saves over 20% of power.
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Four Hybrid
(Common Rail Diesel-Electro) engines.
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All roofs have
photovoltaics (including glass roofs).
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Advanced
biological waste water treatment facility.
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Recycling and
separation of trash and waste.
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Fresh water
production with reused heat and reverse osmosis and low chlorine.
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Reuse and
refining of oil on board.
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Run-off
collection tank only for green roof.
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Corporate
leadership with “Save The Waves” program.
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The Lawn Club: Maintaining a passenger lawn area at sea
takes a committed staff! |
Depending on many
issues (climate, foot traffic, etc.) the grass might need to be changed
to warm season Bermuda grass. When? I don’t know since this has never
done before; only time will tell. The only thing I know is that the
system (the layers set-up) will work in every climate, every region and
with every type of grass where ever the ship cruises.
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On the inaugural cruise to
the Bahamas.
Left: Bocce is just one of the many fun activities to
do on the Lawn Club;
Right: Croquet, anyone? |
We
literally demonstrated that modern
green roof technology and the German Green Roof Guidelines (FLL) work
all around the world – from North to South and West to East.
Rest assured the
FLL is a valuable guideline for plantings on impervious areas on Earth
(and sea).
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Wide open spaces on the open seas on a
gorgeous day! |
There
is no better demonstration of a high quality project than on a mobile green roof traveling the
seas of the world. And we simply delivered
what was ordered: Nice, green, and beautiful.
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Celebrating the Celebrity
Solstice. |
Publisher's Note: See The
Lawn Club on Celebrity Solstice in the
Greenroof Projects Database with additional designer info and more original
graphics.
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A nighttime vision of the Lawn
Club; Graphic Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises. |
The co-founder and co-principal of Green
Roof Service LLC, Jörg Breuning has more than a quarter century of
experience as a leader in the establishment of the green roof industry
in German-spoken Europe, having actively designed, installed, monitored,
and perfected his craft since 1980. Jörg is acknowledged by the
German FLL e.V., the FBB/EFB (German/ European Green Roof Association),
and
the German Landscape Association (GALA-BAU e.V), and his bilingual skills
have provided him access to various American associations including the
ASTM.
He participated in the largest green
roof research endeavor ever undertaken (at Optigrün International AG in
Germany, begun in 1994/1995, still ongoing) and has access to the
resulting data (not fully translated into English) and an intimate
knowledge of the “behind the scenes” circumstances.
Green Roof Service LLC principals Jörg Breuning and Peter Philippi have
no allegiance to any specific product manufacturer and they select
materials and approaches that work best in any given circumstance.
They preserve this independency and freedom to support a healthy and
sustainable development of modern green roof technology in the United
States.
Contact Jörg Breuning of Green Roof Service LLC at: 202 Kimary Court 3D,
Forest Hill, Maryland, 21050, USA; +1 410-322-8029;
jorg@greenroofservice.com; and
www.greenroofservice.com.
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The Celebrity Solstice; Photo
Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises. |
Publisher's Note:
Celebrity Cruises
offers comfortably sophisticated, upscale cruise experiences with highly
personalized service, exceptional dining, and extraordinary attention to
detail. Celebrity sails in Alaska, Australia/New Zealand,
California, Canada/New England, the Caribbean, Europe, Galapagos
Islands, Hawaii, the Pacific Coast, Panama Canal and South America.
The line also offers unique land-tour vacations in Alaska, Canada,
Europe and Australia through its cruise tour affiliate. Noted for
"The World's Best Large Ships," as voted by the readers of Conde' Nast
Traveler (February 2007 Cruise Poll), Celebrity's current fleet will be
joined by Celebrity Solstice in 2008, Celebrity Equinox in 2009,
Celebrity Eclipse in 2010, and a fourth Solstice-class ship in 2011.
For more information, call your travel agent, dial 1-800-437-3111 or
visit
www.celebritycruises.com. And for more information about
Celebrity Solstice, visit
www.cruisecelebritysolstice.com.
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