GREEN GARAGE

Chicago Illinois    Completed 2010

The owners of a two-car garage in Ravenswood needed to downsize. The existing garage took up too much of the yard they needed for organic gardening and was in disrepair. All the components of this project were selected with careful considering to their impact on the environment. This includes the construction and material selections of the new garage as well as the disposal of the old. 

The solution was to create a layered building. We followed this concept in both the literal vertical layering of spaces and functions as well as the layering of the materials used to skin the building.

The new one-car green garage consists of two sections. A wood roof deck with integral deep planters for growing vegetables and a raised roof portion planted with seedums. Rain barrels collect water from the roof.  The planted or “green roof” soaks up rain water and slows runoff. The new roof creates a new ecosystem in the yard, attracting bees and butterflies and has become an inviting space for the owners to inhabit in warm weather.

Green roofs help to reduce the urban heat island effect as well as reduce runoff and provide a habitat for a variety of insect species. This project embodies a consciousness that MPink strives to achieve in all of their projects.