Background
The lakeside development in Doncaster consists of a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments set around a lakes and marina. Built by Totty Construction for Persimmon Homes, the development has a garden courtyard to the rear and provides leisure space with planting and hard landscaping at ground level with a carpark beneath for residents.
Challenge
The design called for the underground carpark to be situated beneath the courtyard as a podium deck. Grassed areas, raised beds, shrub planting, pergolas and hard landscaping are the main features of the garden. Additional design requirements included the provision for access across a timber bridges to the podium deck. The structure had to be fully waterproofed, along with providing sufficient drainage and protection to the raised planters and surrounding building.
Solution
In conjunction with Sheffield based Apex Asphalt, Icopal supplied a complete waterproofing and roof garden solution including planting and turf. The solution was Icopal's Rootbar system using the Rootbar capsheet membrane which provides not only a robust waterproofing membrane but also built-in root inhibitor to protect the waterproofing from potential damage from any plant root growth. The green roof system comprised Fytonop 20 drainage board, filter fleece, and Icopal's lightweight soil mix which contains 40% Fytocell™ Flakes.
The unique Fytocell™ Flakes are able to retain around 60% of their volume with water with the remaining 40% as air giving a very good air/water ratio for healthy and vigorous root growth. This water retention reduces the irrigation requirement, and saves on resources. The use of the Fytocell Flakes also reduces the soil weight by more than a third compared to standard top soils.
Apex Asphalt was involved in the project from start to finish and were able to supply and fix the whole system from Icopal together with the soft landscaping and planting, thus providing the main contractor with a one stop service.