My family lives under the roof of a late 19th century tenement building in central Vienna. The most recent few summers - thanks to the climate catastrophe - have become unbearably hot (in the last couple of years we got just below 40C / 100F) 🥵. So we decided, instead of going with again carbon emitting air conditioning, and because the old wood boards were already semi-rotten, twisted and all in all a health hazard ⚠️, to refurb our rooftop terrace. Our hope is to kill two birds with one stone:

I know this is a first world/luxury problem in every conceivable way, but nonetheless I‘d like to document how we transform our living space in both a climate friendly 🌱 and still enjoyable way.

Fall 2021

After a tropical summer, in September 2021 we began pondering how we should grapple with future heatwaves in our current living situation. Living in an attic flat has many advantages, but heat resiliency is not one of them. In addition to that, our rooftop terrace did show some wear already, and we also had reason to assume it wasn’t really properly constructed back before we bought the flat in 2012. So a refurbishing was not only due, but would present an opportunity to ameliorate matters regarding our micro climate while also honoring the macro one.

2022-04-15

After a lot of research we decided to hire a garden architect (https://www.livinggarden-gartengestaltung.at/) to do the planning. Unfortunately, because we had CoVid at the time, the initial walkthrough of our terrace had to happen virtually. But with the help of Zoom and an iPad we managed to pull it off.

The main activities and requirements we wanted to have covered include:

As you can see in the visualization below, our terrace situation is a bit complicated because it is split across two levels: a smaller one directly adjacent to our flat, and a larger one which is essentially the roof of the rear part of our tenement building, i.e. other parties are living below it.

But this also presented a welcome opportunity to make a thematic split, similar to actual rooms:

After our initial meeting with the architect, we assembled some inspirational photos and videos, and she came up with a first draft:

2022-05-06

We were very satisfied already with the first draft, even though for sure there were a couple of minor things that only emerged after looking at the first set of renderings.

For example, since we are sharing the terrace space 50/50 with our direct neighbors, we wanted to replace the existing glass fence with a wooden brattice, but looking at the visualization gave us a too confined impression. On the other hand, looking at the "Status Quo" images above you can see that the adjacent building isn't in a top state, complete with a crumbling inner facade etc. - not exactly a pleasant sight.

So we decided to switch those two elements:
 

Furthermore, our lower terrace level has the problem of being south-faced and receives direct sunlight at least 8 hours of the day, thus heating up the inside. Therefore we anticipated that the planned vertical beams won't cut it, and opted for additional curtains.

Along with a couple of other minor edits, the second iteration looked like this:

2022-05-21

As it often happens, ideas tend to crop up after frequent and intense exposure to a topic, and of course subconsciously. So after absorbing the visualizations on and off for a couple of days, there were some other minor issues we noticed.

First, the brattice between us and our neighbors felt a bit too enclosing, so we wanted to have the fence poles removed. Furthermore the outdoor kitchen was lacking some kind of sideboard, and we also wanted to have some more decent lighting in the form of a chain of lights:

In the "passage" there's a rather ugly chimney belonging to the pizzeria in the basement which wasn't treated in the first two iterations. So we requested some visual/sun cover to be inserted:

And on the lower floor, we have two (existing) grapevines that could be used for vertical greening:

So after a couple of days, our architect came up with the final set of designs, and look how stunning they are 🤩:

2022-05-30

While being on the home stretch regarding the planning, we conferred with our general contractor in charge of the construction on how to proceed. The first, step, which is quite obvious, is to get rid of the old stuff, which we did:

The old and broken boards will be stored temporarily on the roof, until they will be exchanged for a pallet of new wood, which will be thermo-treated ash, by the way.

2022-07-14

After a delay of about a month - because we had to hire a roofer to add a layer of bitumen felt - finally the day had arrived for the leftovers to be carted off by a crane and truck, and the new wood could be delivered. A bit of action in our little street:

2022-07-25

Next, after a week’s waiting time, because of the vacation season just having started, construction of the flooring could finally start 💪. The craftspeople had to be very careful to get it all level, because obviously the underlying roof is slope to allow rain water to trickle down.

2022-07-27

2022-07-28

Look at how gorgeous that ash looks 🥰

2022-08-02

While we were on vacation, the flooring was finally finished. One smart detail is that we had the water and electrical supply placed below the planks, amidst the subconstruction, so there will be no visible pipes and cables.

While being in Italy, we also ordered the planters from Adezz: https://www.adezz.com/en/products/p/3001/planters/fibreglass/buxus-rectangular/pb25

Here’s a before/after comparison after this first phase was completed:

2022-08-18

Just in time for my birthday (🎂), a part of the pedestal substructure and fencing is completed 🎉

We opted for having two drawers custom built that can be slid below the pedestal, for additional storage.

2022-08-24

A couple of “walls” were finished today that should mainly give us more privacy and sun protection.

Below you can get an impression of how the atmosphere is going to feel in the future:

2022-08-30

Tada 🎉. The pedestal, complete with the drawers built from plywood for extra robustness is finished:

2022-09-01

With the swing chair hanging from the steel staircase all of a sudden a feeling of relaxation has entered the scene. Our daughter already called dibs:

2022-09-07

Finally, after 3 weeks of work the woodworking is completed! 🎉

More sunshades and pillows are next.

2022-09-14

2022-09-25