Roofscapes Initiative

Completed in 2024 in a former town hall now hosting the Académie du Climat, this 100 m² modular timber platform adapts the overheating and inaccessible roofs of Paris to climate change. Conceived and built in partnership with the City of Paris, this renovation shades and protects existing roofs while welcoming vegetation, storing rainwater and hosting public activities. This reversible, low-tech intervention opened a path for the climate realignment of historic roofs to warmer summers, for which the city was never conceived.

Four out of five Parisian roofs are pitched and made out of zinc —their materiality amplifies urban heat while their geometry resist conventional greening strategies. Roofscapes’ Climate Realignment approach arose from research at MIT to address overlooked heating city surfaces. The architect have developed a replicable and modular wooden platform installed above existing roofs, transferring loads to structural walls without altering the existing heritage envelope. At the Académie du Climat, Roofscapes collaborated with the city to test this passive and low-tech heat mitigation strategy. Beyond its thermal performance, this building renovation aimed to offer a replicable blue print for the climate adaptation of more than 20 millions square meter of Parisian zinc roofs. Today, dozens of such projects have been put under studies, demonstrating that climate adaptation can be a lever to preserve the habitability of architectural heritage.

The 100 m² structure is built from French pine and larch by MEHA Construction Bois. Prefabricated wooden beams rest on discrete steel anchor points transferring loads to existing masonry walls, preserving the zinc roof untouched. Vegetation by Topager grows in soil up cycled from excavations of Parisian’s construction digs. The integrated water reserves built-in the planters ensure several weeks of irrigation autonomy by holding water away from the evaporative power of the sun and the wind. Thermal monitoring showed temperature drops of 32°C on the roof surface and 17°C under the roof during a July 2024 heatwave. The design maximizes passive cooling, reversibility, and maintainability: the design of mechanical connections unsure both water drainage and full disassemblability.