Roof and water
Roof terrace
urban housingapartment buildingschoolhoteloffice
It is the almost flat roof of a building that can be walked on and used as one more floor, open to the sky.
What it solves
It adds space on small lots and opens views and breezes up high. In the tropics it only works with shade that protects it from the almost vertical sun, and with slopes and drains that remove rain immediately.
Today
Give it a slight slope toward generous drains and a backup outlet, waterproof it carefully and cover part of it with a pergola, an awning or plants.
Common mistake
Designing it completely flat and without shade, with a single drain that clogs and leaves water standing on the slab.
Tomorrow
A building’s roof terrace can be a shared courtyard for hanging laundry, growing plants and gathering in the evening. Its shared use needs clear rules for access and maintenance.
Fact A flat roof is never completely flat. Commercial ones usually have a slope of 1 to 3 degrees, and ponding water should drain in less than 48 hours.
Where it comes from
- 1Egypt, Persia and Arabia North Africa and Western Asia, Antiquity
In dry climates the flat roof was used as living space, even for sleeping in the cool air. - 2Al-Andalus Iberian Peninsula, Middle Ages
The Spanish word azotea comes from the Andalusian Arabic assutáyha, a diminutive of a word meaning terrace. - 3Modern Movement France, 1920s
Le Corbusier made the roof garden one of his five points of architecture, both as insulation for the slab and as useful space.
Masters
- Le Corbusier Unité d’Habitation, Marseille, France, 1952
He turns the roof into the building’s common space, with a running track, a gym, a nursery and a children’s pool. The roof is used like an elevated open-air street.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Roof and water
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.