Toit en Vert rooftop garden at L'Uzine (Aïn Sebaâ, Casablanca)
Casablanca, Morocco · Operator: Association Toit en Vert
Overview
A citizen-run garden on the roof of the L'Uzine cultural centre in Casablanca's Aïn Sebaâ district. In a city with less than one square metre of green space per resident, it shows how an unused rooftop can be turned into a place for growing food and meeting neighbours.
Citizen participation
A citizens' group tending flowers, aromatic herbs and vegetables in about twenty planter boxes on the roof terrace of the L'Uzine cultural centre. A small band of regulars—"the Saturday gardeners"—meets to share the upkeep and the harvest, and the association runs introductory urban-agriculture workshops capped at 15 people for safety reasons.
Operating model
Work on the roof began in early 2018 with support from the Fondation Touria et Abdelaziz Tazi; the association was formally created in 2019. Alongside introductory workshops it offers turnkey rooftop-greening packages to companies, and aims to open further production-focused sites at public schools and orphanages.
Impact
It demonstrates that vegetables and herbs can be grown on otherwise unused rooftops, and has become a springboard for work with companies and schools. Participants learn growing basics hands-on, and the project is cited as a concrete response to the city's shortage of green space.
Land tenure
Crops
- vegetables
- herbs
- flowers
Scale
Rooftop terrace of the L'Uzine cultural centre; around twenty planting boxes, described by the founder as relatively small
In the media(1)
Web articles and features that cover this case.
Sources(1)
This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.
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