Veg.itect: Dusty Gedge

UK based Dusty Gedge has carved out a interesting niche in the green roof industry (not a surprise for a street entertainer/punk rocker turned urban ecologist, who has revolutionized the industry in the pursuit of rooftops focused on wildlife habitat. Currently he is cofounder of www.livingroofs.org as an independent resource of green roof information in the UK and is currently the President of the European Federation of Green Roof Associatons.


:: Green Roof on Barclays HQ Canary Wharf - image via Dusty Gedge

From his site: "Dusty has been instrumental in promoting green roofs in the UK. This grew out of work with the London Biodiversity Partnership and his work on conserving the black redstart. This work culminated in the formation of Livingroofs.org, the UK's first independent green roof organization. Livingroofs.org is the number one website on green roofs in the UK had has campaigned successfully for a distinct living roof policy in London."


:: image via Roofs and Rambles

I recently stumbled upon Gedge's blog 'Roofs and Rambles' and found some interesting posts, particularly related to habitat walls, as well as a range of international projects and projects that he has been involved with in the UK.


:: image via Roofs and Rambles

Another post features a I particularly like the makeshift habitat assemblages at the Wat Tyler Centre in Pitsea, Essex, using some of the more prototypical 'brown' roofs waste and common household materials created for bees: "This centre is surrounded by some of the most important habitit in the UK for bees such as Bombus humilis and Bombus sylvarum. The substrates used will hopefully find these bees nesting in the near future. however we also had the chance to create lots of different habitat features including log piles and habitat walls."




:: image via Roofs and Rambles

More to come from this great resource, as I feel like I've barely scratched the surface in imagery and content.