Urban Farm DB
← Back to cases
RooftopActiveSince 2015

New Taipei Participatory Rooftop Farm and Ecological Greening Program

New Taipei, Taiwan · Operator: New Taipei City Government Environmental Protection Department

Overview

Launched in 2015 as Taiwan's first 'participatory rooftop farm' scheme, where community residents jointly maintain green roofs, strengthening local cohesion while practicing low-carbon living. The Dongying Li activity center in Yingge District is a flagship site.

Citizen participation

Applicant communities first form a farming team, then-after meetings and discussion-design their own rooftop farm from three modules (thin-layer greening, aquatic-plant pond, trellis netting) provided by the environmental bureau, and attend seed-trainer and hands-on courses.

Operating model

An environmental-bureau-led subsidy-and-participation model. Residents jointly build and manage farms on previously idle apartment rooftops while the city supplies material modules and training.

Impact

Created 112 ecological farms on idle rooftops, saving about 2.16 million kWh and cutting roughly 1,134 tonnes of CO2 a year (an early 46-farm phase saved 678,000 kWh annually), while serving as a venue for resident exchange and environmental education.

Land tenure

License / permit

Residents' farming teams jointly use apartment and activity-center rooftops under the city's program.

Crops

  • vegetables
  • aquatic-plants

Scale

8,308 m²112 rooftop ecological farms on idle rooftops; total greening area ~8,308 sqm (one early phase: 13 communities, 46 farms)

Sources(2)

Related cases

Rooftop
2015

Jin'an Li Rooftop Garden and Rainwater Park, Da'an District, Taipei

TWTaipei, Taiwan

A flagship neighborhood-level case of the Garden City program, where Jin'an Li residents turned neglected spaces into three green sites-a rooftop vegetable garden, a rainwater farm and a corner herb garden-while weaving in local history and creative placemaking.

CommunityFood educationBiodiversity+2

peopo.org+1

Rooftop
2006

Ginza Honey Bee Project

JPTokyo, Japan

A citizen project keeping bees on Ginza rooftops to make urban green networks visible. Linked to rooftop gardens and local food culture, it helped spark urban beekeeping across Japan.

PollinatorsCommunityFood education+2

gin-pachi.jp

Rooftop
2022

Edible KAYABAEN, Nihonbashi-Kayabacho

JPChuo, Tokyo, Japan

Opened in spring 2022 on a building rooftop in Tokyo's Nihonbashi-Kayabacho, this urban community garden grows about 200 species of edible plants. Run by Heiwa Real Estate with Edible Schoolyard Japan as an 'edible schoolyard' in the city, it hosts food education for the nearby Sakamoto Elementary School and community exchange, and has won green-city awards.

Food educationOrganic cycleCompost+3

edibleschoolyard-japan.org+1

Rooftop
2022

Beirut Art Center Rooftop Garden

LBBeirut, Lebanon

Amid Beirut's economic crisis and food insecurity, a citizen-run urban-farming garden on the rooftop of an art center. As a counter to monocultural and monopolistic structures, it offers a model of local cooperation grounded in sharing and collaboration.

CommunityOrganic cycleFood education+1

beirutartcenter.org+1

New Taipei Participatory Rooftop Farm and Ecological Greening Program — Urban Farm DB