The ARC is a grassroots community space in North London. It offers a café alongside events and classes, and houses a foodbank that feeds 300 people every week. They approached us wanting to make use of a large empty roof space to grow food. This forward-thinking rooftop urban farm would be a flagship designed to inspire similar initiatives tackling food resilience in the capital.
A model farm
Driven by The ARC’s ambition for sustainability, in this design, we considered systems and processes as much as physical form. We looked at how the garden, café and foodbank could work together. The modular design could be rolled out anywhere. It is a scheme that showcases smart sustainable solutions, opening up possibilities for urban regeneration.
Flexibility built in
The garden includes indoor and outdoor growing areas. The greenhouse can be reconfigured to make it bigger or smaller. A raised central roof section aids ventilation, whilst composting units help to heat the greenhouse in winter. Rainwater is collected in space-efficient butts behind the structure. Together with solar panels mounted on the roof of the workshop space, this reduces energy demands and costs.