Butterflies and Green roofs – Laban
by Dusty ~ August 11th, 2009. Filed under: Green Roof News.Another visit to the Laban -seems I am visiting at least twice a week at the moment! Today I was being interviewed by Christoph Keller for Swiss radio. Considering that the Laban is designed by Herzog De Meuron, Basel based Architects and the inspiration behind our stems from Dr. Brenneisen’s seminal study of green roofs and invertebrates – seemed quite fitting.
It was a chance to talk about the vision of the brown roof. Back in 2000 Dr. Brenneisen was interested in the invertebrates associated with Rhine gravels. These had found refuge on the old brown lands of Basel. As these became threatened with development could they and would they move to the roofs. This was idea in London. How could the characteristics of brownfield land be replicated at roof level. Of course the other stimulus, that in a planning context had some leverage, was protecting and mitigating for the black redstart – although very common in Basel – a rare species in the UK.
It was pleasing to talk about the Swiss and UK partnership and our trips and collaboration over the last 9 years since I first caught a plan to Basel.
A researcher was due to follow Christoph but she didn’t make it. So I spent an hour observing the roof at close quarters. Earlier in the day I had a twitter from our greek green roof colleagues about a butterfly observed feeding on a green roof. It was pleasant surprise to see a couple of Common blue butterflies checking out the birds foot trefoil. A painted lady, put in a brief appearance – to brief to get a picture. A couple of silver y moths of the same species were disturbed from a large clump of lucerne. Close up you can see a fearsome colouration, like an African face mask, I suspect acting as camouflaged and a warning to keep off.
The hot late afternoon with a gentle east breeze seen to suit the 10 brown carder bees that are still managing to get some nectar from the last flowers heads of Vipers bugloss, Kidney vetch, red clover and birds foot trefoil.
Am sure the roofs in Basel are as busy as the Laban. And no one seems to know that above their heads nature is busy doing its thang
August 25th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Looks interesting, as was the article in Wildlife Mmatters but the butterfly pictured is a Common Blue. The Small Blue would be a truly amazing find in Islington
February 4th, 2010 at 8:12 am
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