Area characterisation:
The Garden Factory ('Tuinfabriek') is an exceptional urban agriculture project on a roof of the central station that aims at becoming the largest food-producing roof of the Netherlands.
Objective:
The main objective is to become the largest food-producing roof of the Netherlands (sustainable food production). Other goals are: -Social cohesion (not directly stated), but the roof was formally closed due to nuisance by junks and is now reopened because of the roof garden and supports participation as everyone who would like to participate is allowed to do so -Education: a primary school is involved in the Garden Factory as children learn about the processes of food production: decomposing, gardening, harvesting, collecting organic waste. Also, the Garden Cantine is a meeting spot in which gardening techniques are exchanged -Pollination: due to the bee keeping on the roof -Eating, composting, sowing, growing, harvesting, cooking form the production process of this Garden Factory
Financing:
Crowdfunding/ donations
Potential impacts/benefits:
Environmental impacts
- Water management and blue areas
- Improved stormwater management
- Green space and habitat
- Increased green space area
- Increased number of species present
- Enhanced support of pollination
Economic impacts
- Increase in agricultural production (for profit or not)
Socio-cultural impacts
- Social justice and cohesion
- Improved access to urban green space
- Increased opportunities for social interaction
- Increased access to healthy/affordable food
- Increased sustainability of agriculture practices
- Education
- Increased support for education and scientific research
Actions:
Food production: seeding, gardening, harvesting Decomposing: collecting organic waste from citizens and businesses (including a supermarket and a flower shop) and putting this in the hand-made decomposing machine Taking care of the chickens: cleaning the chicken coops, moving around the 'mobile chicken coops' in order to move around the chicken from one crop bin to the next. ` Cooking: in the Soup Kitchen, soup is made from the vegetables, which is then brought to the central station mall` Exchange of gardening techniques in the Garden Cantine.
Lessons learnt:
Main beneficiaries
- Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
- Private sector/Corporate/Company
- Citizens or community groups
Contacts:
None provided
The Garden Factory ('Tuinfabriek') is an exceptional urban agriculture project on a roof of the central station that aims at becoming the largest food-producing roof of the Netherlands. The project is a self-sustaining vegetable garden located on the roof of a busy mall in the centre of Utrecht (ref. 5). On the roof, citizens, students, company employees and schools work together to grow vegetables and keep bees and chicken. The Garden Factory reflects an ecological 'self-sustaining factory' as the chickens, worms and bees 'work' in the garden as being part of the decomposing system and pollination and a system is built for rainwater retention that allows for irrigation (ref. 1). Eating, composting, sowing, growing, harvesting, cooking form the production process of this Garden Factory (ref. 4). The main elements of the roof garden are in place, such as the crop bins, the chicken coop and the decomposing machine are completed. However, it is an ongoing developing project as some elements are still in development stage such as some elements of the Soup Kitchen and the aim is to integrate the Garden Factory more with the central station shopping mall in multiple ways.