A bold idea to save Melbourne’s dwindling back yards by moving them on to rooftops could help fight floods and wild weather.
A bold idea to save Melbourne’s dwindling back yards by moving them onto rooftops could help fight floods and wild weather by taking an MCG’s worth of rain out of drains.
The smart concept to make the suburb’s of the future “sponge cities” would also slash energy bills and help homeowners grow vast amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Along with creating garden fence water tanks and using rainwater to flush toilets, developers like Villawood Properties, sustainability experts and home builders believe a simple shift in how we design homes in the future would bring huge savings to households.
RELATED: Future Victoria: Back yards under threat as sky-high land costs squeeze gardens
Victorian apartment approvals rise as new house dream pulls back
Future Victoria: what homes could look like by 2050
Sustainable housing guru and Biofilta director Brendan Condon will later this year open Melbourne’s first rooftop CBD farm atop an old concrete carpark in Docklands, and said the Sky Farm concept could turn housing estates into a frontline defence against major rain events and subsequent flooding.
“If in every house you did this concept, collecting water before losing it, you are producing food, cooling the area and helping to mitigate flooding – that all gets back to the sponge city idea,” Mr Condon said.
“We have paved paradise, put in a parking lot, and now we are thinking about how to bring back paradise.”
AI generated image. What the homes of the future could look like if we embrace rooftop gardens and farming in suburbia.
AI generated image. A few thousand homes would save enough water to fill 82 Olympic-sized swimming pools over a year.
Working on an estimate of a 43 per cent reduction in water run off, he said installing rooftop wicking-bed gardens, shade canopies and plumbing rainwater tanks into toilet cisterns across 5000 homes would save about 82 Olympic swimming pools worth of water a year.
Expand that to 32,000 homes, roughly seven suburb-sized housing estates, that equates to filling the MCG to the brim.
“It takes pressure off downstream water waste systems in flooding events,” Mr Condon said.
“And if you use that to feed rooftop food production, that’s a massive free kick.”
Opening to the public later this year, Mr Condon’s Sky Farm is producing everything from corn and tomatoes through to pears and bananas, with “literal tonnes of food” shared with Aus Harvest since 2021.
With back yards in new estates already smaller than a cricket pitch, Villawood Properties boss Rory Costelloe is beginning to explore the concept of water management in new suburbs.
Developer Rory Costelloe and Sky Farm founder Brendan Condon at the soon-to-be-opened to the public first CBD rooftop farm in Melbourne. Picture: Brendan Beckett.
Villawood residents clubs like this one at their Rathdowne estate are being eyed as future urban farming locations — with even the rooftops under consideration. The estate in Wollert already has a micogrid powerstation.
The firm’s Aquarevo estate has toilets plumbed into rainwater tanks, and Mr Costelloe said there were already slimline water tanks that could replace fences which would add space to back yards, and allow homeowners to make more use of rain.
Beyond the water management and food growth benefits he said rooftop gardens would also help foster community as neighbours exchanged fruit and vegetables, while gardening had benefits for stress.
Mr Costelloe said while Villawood was known for its clubhouses, often including pools, tennis courts, gyms and recently they’d added a second storey to one for childcare, they would consider rooftop farming as a future addition that would help build communities.
The firm has already taken to community-centric housing, with a solar microgrid effectively establishing a mini power-plant fuelled by the solar panels on 36 townhouses feeding to a super-sized central battery in their Rathdowne estate in Wollert — with plans to expand this to 1500 homes across other areas.
Nikhil Vasudev is living in the estate and powers most of his home through 20 solar panels on the roof during the day and battery overnight.
Hugo Wickremaratne, Nikhil Vasudev and Susan Wickremaratne explore the idea of a rooftop farm at Melbourne’s Sky Farm in Docklands. Picture: Brendan Beckett.
AI generated image. The suburb’s of Melbourne’s future could save the back yard, by moving it upstairs.
As a result, he’s now paying about $1 for the energy needed to drive 100km in his electric car.
“I’m saving about $5000 a year,” Mr Vasudev said.
“And that’s being conservative.”
But he’s always looking for new ways to embrace sustainable living, and the concept of getting more benefit from his solar panels as well as helping to feed his family with a rooftop garden has him considering if he could add one to the top of his garage.
Hugho Wickremaratne and wife Susan built their home in the same estate about 2.5 years ago and have already noticed bill benefits from their solar panels — but a Sky Farm style rooftop garden has them intrigued.
“I do love gardening and I’ve planted what I can, like rosemary and olives … but this is something I have never seen, and it helps with so many things,” Ms Wickremaratne said.
Urban Development Institute of Australia Victorian executive director Linda Allison said finding ways to mitigate climate change, and particularly to address water scarcity, should be a priority — particularly with high-water needs for the data centres that power AI that are increasingly vying for space in similar locations to new housing estates.
Homebuyers are seeking more vertical greenery, with growing demand for homes like Metricon’s Catalina design.
While full gardens would cost significantly more to add to a home build, interim measures could boost greenery to the benefit of solar and home energy consumption.
“We have to look outside the box with a lot of the housing challenges that we are faced with,” Ms Allison said.
Australia’s biggest home builder, Metricon, said that rooftop gardens would be technically possible — but would come with additional costs from further structural engineering, waterproofing and specialist trades.
Design director Adrian Popple said this would make them “impractical for most mainstream customers”, but there was growing demand for greenery to be added to homes wherever possible.
He estimated adding a rooftop garden would mean a six-figure increase in build costs today, but wouldn’t rule them out of appearing in the more premium or bespoke builds of the near future.
Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.
MORE: Villawood Microgrid: How housing estates could protect against blackouts
Future Victoria: Jurassic Park science could save species from Melbourne housing growth
Future Victoria: homes to be 3D printed in 24 hours within the decade
English (US) · 