Rooftop Greenhouses: Smart and Inclusive Design

Abstract

This chapter proposes solutions to reduce energy consumption in buildings and, if applied on a large scale, to turn our cities into green rooftop productive and beautiful gardens, so increasing the carbon offset. The chapter analyses the new models of urban agriculture rooftop integrated with greenhouses, as a new local productive food system, in order to develop sustainable pathways to establish the relations among producers, consumers, inhabitants, and communities and to increase local economies, minimizing food miles.Furthermore, urban agriculture projects have been taken into consideration, not only at the self-managed level (i.e. community, private) but also at the commercial one. In particular, practitioners, food trucks, association of volunteers, and farmers have found in the roofs of the city vacant space for placing food production leading to the development of urban rooftop farming. Consequently, rooftop farms, rooftop greenhouses, and rooftop gardens have emerged on buildings. [Nevertheless, specific assessment of the potential implementation and the sustainability performance of different urban rooftop farming forms, cultivation techniques, and crops is necessary.] However, a specific assessment of the potential implementation and sustainability performance of the various forms of agriculture is required as well as of the cultivation techniques and crops practicable on an urban roof.Rooftop greenhouse connected with the inner spaces of the building improves the building sustainability and comfort.The system applied to greenhouses collects warm air, controls airflows of energy, and manages rainwater recovery to be reused for plants. Generally, greenhouses are managed by an automatic control system activated by sensors interacting with the building temperature, humidity, and shading elements (Montero 2016). The energy needed for automatic control is given by the integration of renewable energy devices suited to the local climate.Local renewable energy resources (geothermal, solar, wind, etc.) store energy and manage the central system together with the water resources.Many buildings are made on existing urban infrastructure and nowadays cities are becoming smart green skyline cities. Social benefits are seen in the use of rooftops as urban greenery surfaces for social projects, job creation, and social cohesion activities.This chapter focuses on the urban greenhouse technological solutions that can provide urban agriculture and building comfort such as using residual heat, rainwater for irrigation, and CO2 exchange; these can be part of the common metabolism greenhouse building.The different approaches and the multifaceted forms that rooftop farming may assume in any context are experiences spread throughout the world. In the new urban agriculture techniques experimented by agronomists and landscape designers showed the need for scientific evidence on the most suitable growing solutions, policies, and potential benefits.The chapter proposes the most influencing rooftops for urban agriculture around the world.KeywordsUrban farmingRooftop greenhouseSocial inclusionUrban sustainability