Urban agriculture, a globalised phenomenon
Fanny Provent and Paola Mugnier, authors of the practical guide “Agriculture urbaine : comment aménager une toiture-terrasse” have created an overview of current trends thanks to the benchmark of 170 projects around the world. They also analysed the services provided, established the characteristics of these spaces and proposed a forward-looking vision for the building of tomorrow.
Almost 46% of the sites listed are in North America. In fact, it is often considered as one of the cradles of rooftop urban agriculture. It then spread to Europe and, more particularly, to France where it has been colonising rooftops for a number of years. Whether in the Paris region (Les parisculteurs, Réinventer Paris, Inventons la Métropole du Grand Paris), Angers (Imagine Angers), Toulouse (Dessine-moi Toulouse), Marseille, Nantes and other cities, calls for projects or calls for expressions of interest continue to include agricultural projects on rooftops. Local authorities themselves develop programmes concerning rooftop projects. Asia only represents 13% of the projects listed. This low figure is explained by the difficulty of access to information. However, many agricultural projects are developing there, with a productive aim, mainly in the form of indoor farming (farms inside buildings). We can expect that the number of agricultural projects will increase in the heart of cities that are highly dependent on food imports. To cite just one example, Singapore imports almost 90% of what it consumes. In addition, AmHydro, a young innovative company, shortly plans to install eight hydroponic greenhouses on the roofs of Singapore that represent up to 3,300 sq.m of exploited surface area.
La Ferme Abattoirs - Bigh's farms in Brussels.
The productive urban farm on the roof of the Bastille opera house.
North Brooklyn farms in the United States (photo: Agrovelocity). 
The vegetable garden on the rooftop of Ryerson University in Toronto (Photo: Agrovelocity).
Fanny Provent and Paola Mugnier will present the first practical guide from the lab recherche environnement (ed. Eyrolles) on 21 September 2020 on the occasion of the Lab Evening “Urban and vertical farmers”
