In the 1988 Talking Heads song Nothing But Flowers, David Byrne envisaged a world in which civilisation had decayed and was replaced by luxuriant vegetation.
Today, nature is increasingly a part of inner cities — only to complement modern buildings rather than colonise their remains. Examples include green roofs, vertical forests, rooftop farms and green walls, most often encountered in urban areas.
Sod roofs originated with Viking dwellings in Scandinavia and were widely used in the Middle Ages. They consisted of a layer of turf on top of layers of birch bark, providing much-needed winter insulation.
From the 18th century onwards, sod roofs were gradually replaced with tile.
The modern green roof was pioneered in Germany starting in the 1960s and featured a more sophisticated construction. Today at
