With few green spaces, Bangkok plants Asia's biggest rooftop farm

[snoop1130]

With few green spaces, Bangkok plants Asia's biggest rooftop farm

By Rina Chandran

 

 

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Bangkok’s Thammasat University, one of the oldest in Thailand, has a new claim to fame: Asia’s largest urban rooftop farm.

 

The 7,000 sq mt (75,000 sq ft) space mimics rice terraces in northern Thailand and can help curb some of the impacts of climate change, such as frequent flooding, said Kotchakorn Voraakhom, the landscape architect behind the project.

 

“We tend to make a distinction between buildings and green spaces but green spaces can be part of building design in cities like Bangkok, which has few green spaces,” said Kotchakorn, the chief executive and founder of Landprocess.

 

“Rooftops are usually under utilized but they can be green spaces that reduce the urban heat-island effect, the environmental impacts of buildings and land use, and also feed people,” she said ahead of the farm’s opening on Tuesday.

 

Bangkok, built on the floodplains of the Chao Phraya River, is forecast by climate experts to sink by more than 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) annually and become one of the urban areas to be hit hardest by extreme weather conditions in the coming years.

 

Nearly 40% of the Thai capital may become flooded each year by 2030 due to more intense rainfall, according to the World Bank estimates.

 

Flooding in many parts of Bangkok is already common during the annual monsoon. The rains in 2011 brought the worst floods in decades, putting a fifth of the city under water.

 

It was after that disaster that Kotchakorn began thinking more about climate-resilient green spaces.

 

 

She recently designed Bangkok’s first new public park in decades - a 4-hectare (11-acre) space at Chulalongkorn University that can hold up to 1  million gallons of rainwater.

 

The rooftop farm at Thammasat University in Rangsit, about 40 km (25 miles) from Bangkok’s city center, is open to anyone who wishes to grow rice, vegetables and herbs, said Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, a vice vector at the university.

 

“Thailand is an agricultural society, but in the cities we are so cut off from the source of our food. With rooftop farms, we can also improve urban food security,” he said.

 

With more than two-thirds of the world’s population forecast to live in cities by 2050, according to the United Nations, urban agriculture could be critical.

 

Urban farms could supply almost the entire recommended consumption of vegetables for city dwellers while cutting food waste and reducing emissions from transportation of agricultural products, according to a study here published last year.

 

With space at a premium, cities from Paris to Singapore are adding farms atop malls and conference halls.

 

As climate risks increase, rooftop farms will no longer be a novelty, said Kotchakorn, who was named last month on Time magazine’s inaugural 100 Next list of rising stars.

 

“There are limited opportunities to create new green spaces in cities,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

 

“Urban rooftop farms are an easy and effective climate solution, and should be the norm.”

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-10

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[TooBigToFit]

Where to begin with this one? Nice idea but not well thought out in my opinion. It seems like more waste and literally it has little to do with helping the environment. Leaving natural open space there with paths for walking would be much better than this. This is the product of someone who likes to waste money. The only people using it for growing food might be some of the staff at the hospital nearby but let's see how long that lasts. Anyone else would probably be driving a car or motorbike to this location since it isn't near any homes. Students aren't even in this area of the campus. The campus itself has been turned from a very open airy campus fifteen years ago into a traffic-jammed place with 10 7-11s, Starbucks, DairyQueen, Swensons and other shops packed in. The people who controlled Bangkok moved out of Bangkok because of the problems of traffic and crowding at the downtown campus only to ruin the Rangsit campus in the same way. And the development is hardly over.

 

As for the structure itself, it's an interesting design but I fear it won't be taken care of. It's just requires too much attention. It will require a lot of maintenance on the grounds and eventually in the upkeep of the cement structures involved in it. At 5-6pm there's a daily traffic jam next to it already and that will only get worse as even more structures are built on the campus in that area.

 

Thammasat already seems to have financial difficulties. The Puey complex may have seminar rooms for rent inside which could help with costs but it looks to be another drag on whoever actually has to pay to maintain it. At the same time, Thammasat already seems to have quite a few new buildings with empty lecture rooms. 

 

On the positive side, it's right next to the hospital so for people who are waiting for someone in there, it will be a good place to kill an hour walking around. But there isn't a lot of parking on campus so this will just add to the hassles.

 

I think the most amazing thing is that this construction started when the nation was under the military coup and some Thammasat students were being arrested for protesting it. From my experience with them, many students at Thammasat don't seem to know a lot about Puey Ungpakorn. This complex is named after him.

[legend49]

Will it survive the pollution?

 

[Jimbo2014]

 

4 hours ago, legend49 said:

Will it survive the pollution?

 

Right now Im wondering if any of us will ????

 

 

 

 

 

[ThaiFelix]

Nothing new, the Chinese have been doing it for years.

[johng]

They should also use roof space for solar panels  on private and government properties ..scrap the import tax on panels and introduce a fair feed in tariff,  Thailand has lots of sun !!!!

[josephbloggs]

3 hours ago, ThaiFelix said:

Nothing new, the Chinese have been doing it for years.

Odd thing to say.  No-one was claiming it was anything new or that they were the first to do it.

 

Or just you just generally go around pointing at things and saying they're not new and have been done before?  Do you go to a shoe shop and tell them shoes are not new, they've been around for ages!  Call Pizza Hut and tell them pizzas aren't new, Italians have been eating them for years.   Perhaps you travel by BTS and tell the staff it's not new, trains were invented in England in 1804.  etc etc.

[ThaiFelix]

Jeeez it was just a thought hahahaha!   No, I wont lower myself.  Enjoy the rest of the day.

[toast1]

It wasn't just a thought hahaha!  

It was stupid.

[mok199]

Nice to a green space without food carts and scooters....

[sunnyboy2018]

Great  news. Thailand is leader in such innovative project and it really needs to create green spaces in Bangkok which are sorely lacking compared to European capital cities. I can't wait to visit it.