Today, modern home design comes in a variety of mediums. Between home architecture, building materials, furniture and creative landscaping and lighting there are a lot of new home building trends that people are becoming interested in.

One of my favorite ideas is still rather unique but slowly becoming more popular, and this is the concept of living roofs. I think having a garden or any decorative vegetation on top of your roof adds an incredibly cool element to your home.

If you do have a garden the obvious benefit is you can grow your own food. But regardless of what you grow the benefits are far more than just dinner. Green roofs are also:

• Energy efficient. The greater the insulation of a green roof, the more it will help moderate the temperature in your home. This will result in less heating in the winter time and significantly less cooling in the summer
• Added fire protection. Live vegetation on your roof will provide more fire protection than a conventional roof
• Noise reduction. Extensive green roofs have been found to reduce sound by up to 40 decibels making your home significantly quieter
• They’re healthy. Green roofs help manage and filter storm water and have been found to help reduce air pollution around your home
• They’re rad. You can grow lilies and stuff!

Green roofs are beginning to be seen on both private homes and commercial buildings around Truckee and they add a very aesthetic quality to neighborhoods. Around Truckee, you can see a beautiful mature green roof on top of the Cedar House Sport Hotel and on new homes like a recently finished house in Lahontan. In years to come it will be fascinating to drive around and see how green roofs take shape as the popularity of this design trend continues to increase.

The Cedar House Sport Hotel – Truckee.