According to the current practice in new construction and renovation designing, a greater emphasis is placed on energy efficiency for buildings and structures. For greenhouses this practice causes difficulties to find new solutions for structures which are more energy efficient but still comply with the working principles of a greenhouse.

The objective of this thesis was to design a greenhouse roof structure suitable for the northern climate conditions in the Oulu area. Load-bearing capacity of the structures, good thermal insulation and light transmission capability had to be taken into consideration in the designing. The purpose of this work would be to act as a basis for the actual structural designing and overall greenhouse designing, so it does not include any load capacity calculations for the structures. The client of this work was Poepoint Finland Ltd located in Kempele.

The work was done by getting acquainted with the operation and cultivation conditions of greenhouses with the help of literature covering the subject and through material published by greenhouse structure manufacturers. Properties of load-bearing structures and roofing materials, as well as their suitability for the greenhouse were compared with each other. The shape of the roof structure and its impact on the amount of light getting inside the building was taken into consideration in the designing. Efficiency calculations were made for the different shape options to determine optimal light transmission.

In the thesis a suitable roof structure model was composed for the conditions in Oulu area. The structure is durable, it has a good thermal insulation capability and it supports the function of the greenhouse by allowing sunlight to get inside the building. The finished work can be utilized as a part of the greenhouse designing for making the final structure and material choices.