graze the roof

In La Pampa, Argentina, the Figueras Polo Club offers an unexpected form of rooftop agriculture: pastureland.  The club’s 44-stall stables and surrounding polo grounds provide owner Ignacio Figueras — Argentinian polo star, celebrity horse breeder, and the face of Ralph Lauren Black Label — a swanky place to entertain potential buyers.

“The roofs are planted with wild native grasses in an intentional contrast to the perfection of the polo field’s turf,” says project architect Juan Ignacio Ramos, founder of Buenos Aires and New York-based architecture firm Estudio Ramos.

The roof’s biodiversity likely attracts grazing polo ponies by offering nutrients and seasonal flavors supplemental to those found in the surrounding turf grass. Like other green roofs on low-lying buildings, the pastureland may additionally ease temperature fluctuations within the 41,440 square foot facilities below.

Manicured landform connects the polo grounds to the rooftop pasture.  “The slopes serve as both, access to the roof and as natural stands from which to observe the polo matches,” explains Ramos.  Aesthetically and functionally, this unique destination remains strides ahead of the competition.