ELECTIVE-II

SB PATIL COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

CHAITANYA RAVINDRA SATPUTE
4TH YEAR B.ARCH SECTION-B
 Introduction

• Urban agriculture, urban farming, or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating,

processing and distributing food in or around urban areas. Urban agriculture can
also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agro forestry, urban beekeeping,
and horticulture. These activities occur in peri-urban areas as well, and peri-urban
agriculture may have different characteristics.
• The most remarkable feature of urban agriculture, which differentiates it from
rural agriculture, is that it is integrated into the urban economic and ecological
system. Most cities in developing countries have great difficulties to cope with this
development and are unable to create sufficient formal employment
opportunities for the poor. They also have increasing problems with the disposal
of urban wastes and waste water and maintaining air and river water quality.
• City farms are usually community-run gardens which aim to improve community
relationships and offer an awareness of agriculture and farming to people who
live in urbanized areas.
FACTORS INVOLVED IN URBAN
AGRICULTURE

People
Large part of the people involved in urban agriculture is the urban
poor. In many cities, one will often also find lower
and mid-level government officials, school teachers and the like
involved in agriculture, as well as richer people who
are seeking a good investment for their capital. Women constitute
an important part of urban farmers, since
agriculture and related processing and selling activities, among
others, can often be more easily combined with their
other tasks in the household.
Location
Urban agriculture may take place in locations inside the cities
(intra-urban) or in the peri-urban areas. The activities
may take place on the homestead (on-plot) or on land away from
the residence (off-plot), on private land (owned,
leased) or on public land (parks, conservation areas, along roads,
streams and railways), or semi-public land
(schoolyards, grounds of schools and hospitals).

PEOPLE INVOLVED IN URBAN AGRICULTURE.

LOCATION CONTEXT
ROOFTOP GARDENS

•A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the

decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control,
hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for
wildlife, recreational opportunities, and in large scale it may even have
ecological benefits. The practice of cultivating food on the rooftop of
buildings is sometimes referred to as rooftop farming. Rooftop farming is
usually done using green roof, hydroponics, aeroponics or air-
dynaponics systems or container gardens.
•Humans have grown plants atop structures since the ziggurats of
ancient Mesopotamia (4th millennium BC–600 BC) had plantings of trees
and shrubs on aboveground terraces. An example in Roman times was
the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, which had an elevated terrace
where plants were grown.
•Roof area can be used to create decorative vegetation, or edible garden or
to create a low maintenance garden. The rooftop garden is sufficient to
grow various forms of vegetation: shrubs, grasses, annuals, perennials,
herbs, vegetables and even dwarf fruit trees depending on what you wish
to grow, climate, budget, available space and the functioning of the
building.
Roof garden construction.
1. Waterproofing Layer
Roof must be waterproofed, durable and frost resistant, if you’re growing
plants on it, whether you will grow plants on containers, raised beds or on the
roof itself, roof waterproofing is must and should be the first step of terrace
garden construction as it protects the roof from leaking.
Waterproofing covers up the entire surface of the roof, most importantly
those spots where the plants will be planted.

2. Insulation Layer
Insulation layer (Protection Layer) makes a terrace garden resistant to
moisture and temperature fluctuation and provides it sufficient mechanical
strength. It is made mostly of XPS extruded polystyrene boards, PIR panels
or polyurethane foam.
PIR panels are well suited as a layer of insulation on the roof garden as they
have special grooves and milled edge connections that allow rainwater to pass
to drainage systems easily.

3. Drainage Layer
Drainage layer on the roof garden is used to quickly discharge the rainwater
from the vegetation layer into the drainage system, as well as to collect
excess water.

4. Geotextile Layer
Geotextile fabric layer is used to separate drainage layer and plants growing
in soil. It prevents depositing of soil and other fine particles that clogs the
drainage system.
It also counteracts the reduction of water rapidly from the vegetation layer by
circulating the moisture. Geotextile should be waterproofed and vapor-
permeable, chemically and biologically resistant and mechanically robust.

5. The vegetation Layer

Vegetation layer means the growing medium (soil), the surface where you’ll
grow plants and greenery. Growing medium should have good air circulation
and it should have to be water permeable. Soil is preparation is done
according to the plants you’re growing.
Generally plants require fertile and slightly acidic soil.
 ROOFTOP GARDENS

STEPS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF

ROOFTOP GARDENS
CASE STUDY OF THE
BROOKLYN GRANGE
•Name-The Brooklyn Grange.
•Area-40,000 square foot space on top of a six-story warehouse.
• Location-Long Island City (Leahy, 2011).
•The farm, which first began in the spring of 2010, outputs over 40
species of agricultural crops ranging from tomatoes and kale, to
carrots .The crops produced on the farm are sold to community
members, local restaurants and grocery stores, and the owners
have recently incorporated an aviary to harvest honey.
•The farm is run as a fully functioning business, with aims to
provide a sustainable model for Urban Agriculture, to provide
healthy and nutritious produce to the local community, and to
benefit the environment (Brooklyn Grange, 2012).
•The produce, which is all completely organic, is grown in soil 8
to 12 inches deep (Brooklyn Grange, 2012).
•In addition to this, no synthetic or chemical herbicides, fertilisers
or pesticides are used. There was some concern that the pollution
from the city would manifest itself in the produce.
• However, the life span of the plants, unlike that of humans, is too
short for them to be affected by the air pollutants. On the contrary,
the presence of the plants actually improves the quality of the air
as gases, such as Carbon Dioxide, are absorbed by the plants
(Brooklyn Grange, 2012).
 The Brooklyn Grange.

The Brooklyn Grange.

40,000 SQ.FT. area on

top of six storey
warehouse.

Completely organic
produce grown in soil
which is 8-12 inches
deep.