Gardening on city rooftops, terraces and balconies is an original and creative way to reclaim unused areas of the city and transform them into productive green spaces that help contribute to urban ecology. It is with this intention that the Rooftop Garden Project has been exploring new ways to interact with urban man-made environment and the food cycle, for a greener city and healthier communities.

Urban gardens produce fruit and vegetables ecologically, encourage healthy and productive physical activity and brighten up the city. In addition to this, they also help reduce heat islands (domes of warm, polluted air that hover over urban environments), make use of organic waste, increase biodiversity and improve air quality

The innovative method of soil-less cultivation, which Alternatives heartily supports, involves growing fruit and vegetables in self-watering containers. This simple adapted technique optimizes plant growth by providing a constant source of water and oxygen. Not only can the containers hold enough water to sustain the plants for 3-5 days, they are also able to collect rainwater. Containers are portable and adaptable and can thus be used to grow food in areas with contaminated soil.

The new green community spaces have been designed as collective gardens, making participation possible in both public and private areas. This is founded in a desire to offer some simple food production models that are affordable, environmentally-friendly and easy to adapt for use in both the South and the North, in a response to growing urbanization, pollution and growing urban poverty.

The Rooftop Garden Project is a combination of hydroponic cultivation, permaculture, organic agriculture and collective gardening. It has inspired numerous initiatives in Québec, Canada and elsewhere in the world.

The Rooftop Garden Project is funded by Alternatives, an international development organization in Montreal. Its partnership with Santropol Roulant, a food distribution organization, has helped the project take root in the community. The project is grounded in several progressive partnerships in an effort to increase and spread urban greening. Partnerships have been formed with McGill University and UQUAM, the City of Montréal, the ITHQ, Patro le Prévost, volunteers and the collective community gardens in Montréal and Québec, in addition to partners in Cuba, Mali, and South Africa.

In 2008, the Rooftop Garden Project earned the highest environmental distinction in Quebec, the Phénix de l’environnement, and received the 2008 National Urban Design Award from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) for its collaborative project with McGill University’s Minimum Cost Housing Groupe and Santropol Roulant.

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Submitted by john on Sun, 14/05/2006 - 3:10pm.