Asset 2
TIBÁ rquitectos
lineaCurva

BABILONIA


BABILONIA

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 2008

   Winner of the Planeta Casa Award 2010

The community of Babilonia, located on the hills of Copacabana, a district of Rio de Janeiro, was the site of a great achievement for all involved. The challenge was to provide a sustainable system for the storage of celestial rainwater since the water coming from the city pipes is not enough and contaminated. 

The solution was to build a grass roof to catch rainwater and store it in a tank containing a biological filter, which provides clean drinking water and does it ecologically, i.e. chlorine-free and naturally mineralized by the stones on the roof and in the tank.



Tibanos, Babilonians and students from MIT, all building together.

The initial training of green roof technology was given at the TIBÁ Institute.



Placing the sand, gravel, earth and grass sods.









The process begins with the construction of a wooden structure that must support 150 kilograms per square meter. This weight is composed of gravel, earth, water, and biomass.





The children of the community participated in the process, strengthening their vision of ecology and acquiring knowledge of roofs that work as thermal insulators.


Shanti Kleiman, an MIT student and creator of the project, together with Jorge Ricardo Oliveira dos Santos, bio-builder and one of the teaches of the Reforestation Ecocoop, cutting the excess of felt, a fabric that will protect the plastic tarp.


On the walls of the mess hall, the students painted motifs of flora and fauna of the region. The result brought in more joy and addressed the importance of environmental issues.


Peter Van Lengen installing the biological filter inside the water tank of 3000 liters. The tank will receive all the grass roof´s rainwater.






Drainage system made with gravel.