Between Heaven and Earth: Flat Roof, Roof Terrace, Roof Garden.
Author Eva Berger presents the book Flachdach, Dachterrasse, Dachgarten. Eine kleine Wiener Geschichte des Wohnens “zwischen Himmel und Erde” as part of the Academy Library’s event series Wer A… sagt.
![Color cover of the book “Flachdach, Dachterrasse, Dachgarten” [Flat roof, roof terrace, roof garden] by Eva Berger. In the upper third we find the author's name, title and subtitle. A detail from a gouache by an unknown artist with a member of the family of Emperor Franz II/I on the roof garden of the Hofburg (around 1796, Wien Museum Inv. No. 95.070) adorns the lower section.](https://www.akbild.ac.at/en/university/universitylibrary/activities/lectures-events/2025/between-heaven-and-earth-flat-roof-roof-terrace-roof-garden/berger_dachgarten.jpg/@@images/image-1400-ebc1f384265e14cfdecf016f61845049.jpeg "Eva Berger, [em]Flachdach, Dachterrasse, Dachgarten. Eine kleine Wiener Geschichte des Wohnens „zwischen Himmel und Erde“[/em], Böhlau Verlag, 2021")
This book illustrates the development of roof gardens, roof terraces and flat roofs from antiquity to the 20th century as a special topic of open space design, particularly important in times of ongoing climate change, with examples from all over Europe and above all with examples from the 16th century to the 1960s from the Vienna area.
The value of green open spaces for well-being by improving the microclimate in urban, mostly densely built-up areas is measurable and undisputed. Climate change has long since occurred and is already clearly noticeable to us all: other greenery such as on streets, squares and courtyards, on facades and parking lots also has a balancing effect on the heated, ungreened surfaces of buildings and open spaces. These opportunities to design with nature are therefore of great importance.
From the Hanging Gardens of Queen Semiramis in ancient Babylon to the “Terraced Grove”, which enabled the dissident Bogdan Bogdanovic (1922–2010; architect, university professor, writer and politician) to spend time outdoors in his Belgrade apartment despite being under house arrest for years, these often astonishing and sometimes touching possibilities “between heaven and earth”.
Eva Berger, born 1955; studied art history and history; from 1984 to 2021, from 2002 as associate professor, at the TU Wien [Vienna University of Technology] in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning; habilitated in 2001; Secretary General of the Österreichischen Gesellschaft für historische Gärten [Austrian Society for Historical Gardens]; Main areas of research: Austrian garden art and garden culture; numerous publications, most recently: Flachdach, Dachterrasse, Dachgarten. Eine kleine Wiener Geschichte des Wohnens „zwischen Himmel und Erde“ [Flat roof, roof terrace, roof garden. A short Viennese history of living “between heaven and earth”], Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2021.
Eva Berger, Flachdach, Dachterrasse, Dachgarten. Eine kleine Wiener Geschichte des Wohnens „zwischen Himmel und Erde“
Österreichische Gartengeschichte series, edited by Österreichische Gesellschaft für historische Gärten, vol. 3, 150 p., 76 b/w and color illustrations, in German, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar: Böhlau Verlag, 2021, ISBN978-3-205-21281-2 (also available as an eBook)
www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com