Mexico: Green therapy on the rooftops

In the last two years a Mexico City hospital, kindergarten and municipal government office building have experimented with plant-covered rooftops. Today, workers and visitors are enjoying the benefits. Eight months ago, the first "nature roof" was created at the Belisario Domínguez Hospital in the working-class neighbourhood of Iztapalapa, Mexico City's most densely populated district, home to 1.8 million people. The green roof of this three-storey hospital is divided in two: the larger part is over a portion of the first storey, the smaller is over the third. "Having direct or visual contact with a green area helps a great deal in the patients' recovery. In Japan, nearly every hospital has a 'nature' terrace," Tania Müller, head of the project, said in an interview. According to the hospital's director, Osvaldo González La Riviere, "the workers enjoy the space. Initially, the smokers used it, but we have been able to regulate that. Some patients found out about the rooftop garden and now they ask to go for a stroll there, with the help of family members."