Adoption of Green Roof Design Systems For Retrofitting Residential Tower Blocks in Northern Cyprus

This paper presents a study on the rehabilitation of neglected rooftops in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. High density of the residential areas and steep land value in the Mediterranean city of Famagusta territory have driven people to maximise liveable and productive spaces in urban settings. At the same time, understanding the problems caused by the high-land value and the increase in energy consumption as a result of fast rise in population growth and unplanned urbanisation leads to making this research for designing a sustainable approach to implement green roof and its design elements. This includes the reinvention of roof functions extending merely as a protection from the elements to a platform of housing green building technologies such as green roofs. The objective of the research is to examine the issues of green roof top approaches in terms of their design elements and implementations. The methodology for understanding green roof design assessment and dimension of its design elements have been derived from questioning design elements of green roofs in three selected residential buildings to show similarity or differences in response to the basic requirements of green roof design. Residential buildings have been examined as they are classified according to their typology and elements, construction materials since space usages and design interpretations are related to include effective measures that will help to adapt to the already inevitable changes. Results from this research indicate that the vegetated space usage in high density housing projects will eventually provide a theoretical framework that can be oriented in the decision making process for implementing green roofs in Northern Cyprus. The methodology, findings and results emphasis the potential for improving the green roof design implementations and durability of residential building functions by understanding the design environment and the interactions between the surrounding environment and green roof design. These collective requirements have created challenges to develop an innovative green cities offering future studies for green roof design.