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RooftopActiveSince 2022

Urban Farming School at Tulla Culture Centre (rooftop greenhouse, Tirana, Albania)

Tirana, Albania · Operator: Tulla Culture Centre(センター長 Alban Nimani が創設、Klaudja Piroli が運営)/ドイツ国際協力公社 GIZ アルバニアの助成

Overview

An urban-farming school in central Tirana, taught in a greenhouse built on the rooftop terrace of the Tulla Culture Centre. It began in 2022 with funding from GIZ Albania and holds growing classes every Thursday evening, raising roughly 300 plants a season — tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach — chosen to suit the local climate. Tirana once had a culture of families keeping small allotments, but it faded as green space was taken over by construction. The school gives equal weight to recovering those lost skills and to building connections between people.

Citizen participation

Weekly Thursday-evening growing classes — 'Thursdays for Planting'. More than 150 people have attended and 60 have received certificates. The large majority are women aged 25–60, including teachers and members of marginalised communities, among them Albania's LGBT+ community.

Operating model

An informal education programme opened in 2022 by the Tulla Culture Centre, one of Tirana's best-known creative hubs, with funding from the German aid agency GIZ Albania. The growing classes are framed as a way to connect social activism with art and culture.

Impact

Distinctive for making an arts and culture hub double as an urban-farming school, creating a space open to people who are easily isolated — women and LGBT+ people among them. It issues certificates, treating participation as vocational skill rather than a hobby. One of few sustained urban-farming education projects in the Western Balkans taught in a rooftop greenhouse.

Land tenure

Owned

Uses the rooftop terrace of the culture centre's own building.

Crops

  • トマト
  • キュウリ
  • ハーブ
  • タマネギ
  • ブロッコリー
  • カリフラワー
  • レタス
  • ホウレンソウ

Scale

市中心部の文化施設の屋上テラスに建てた温室1棟。1作期あたり約300株を育てる

Sources(1)

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Urban Farming School at Tulla Culture Centre (rooftop greenhouse, Tirana, Albania) — Urban Farm DB