Large-space buildings have large spatial scale, complicated structures and dense people. Roof systems are key parts of their enclosures. The structural systems of large-space buildings need light materials and reasonable stresses while cover soils suggest load increase and structural bearing capacity adaptability change. In this paper, comprehensive adaptability of the overall cover soil of saddle-shaped shell structures and energy efficiency are simulated and evaluated through Sap2000 software and Design Builder software. The findings are that cover Soil greening can greatly save energy for buildings of "saddle-shaped" shell structures and structural thicknesses increase linearly with cover soil load increase, the structures are highly adaptive to cover soil, and it is positively significant to combine large space "saddle-shaped" shell structures with cover soil greening. The integration of the relationship among the "saddle-shaped" shell structure, energy-conserving effect, and cover soil load provides further research basis for the practical application of the overall roof greening of "saddle-shaped" shell structure. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.