How do you make your life a little “greener” and closer to the nature if all you have is a rooftop of a concrete building in one of the world’s most polluted cities?  This project was an answer to the question.

We were given a rooftop of a total of 150 sq.m. in downtown Los Angeles of which 100 sq. m. could be used for indoors and were asked to turn it into  a zero impact penthouse. Our client is a young couple who requested a green oasis, in which they could relax from a busy city life.

Los Angeles has a bad environmental reputation for its smog to mitigate the effect of which we surrounded the penthouse with the greenery through the use of vertical gardens, rooftop grass and a small herb garden in the central atrium. These gardens are irrigated through a rainwater collection system, which collects every drop of the scarce rainwater falling onto the roof and stores it in Rainhog rainwater collection system placed under the terrace.

All energy needs of the household are met through a 25kW photovoltaic system covering the entire roof (139 sq.m.) with an excess energy being sent back to the grid. In efforts to reduce Co2 emissions, we sourced all furniture, materials and appliances from companies in Los Angeles area which are committed to sustainable manufacturing processes.