Why New Yorkers flock to the roofs of buildings
As you climb to the top of a building in the Dumbo area of Brooklyn, a vast rooftop garden opens up. It is full of office workers who are obsessed with yoga with their backs to the setting sun, those who savor eco-friendly crops, and those who learn urban beekeeping or gardening. The world’s largest rooftop garden, Brooklyn Grange. New York, a city with more than 550 rooftop gardens, shows a different life for city dwellers today.
In the reality of the skyrocketing real estate market , rooftops are considered an alternative to realizing a new lifestyle in large cities where it is not easy to secure even a green space for leisurely footsteps . New York, with more than 550 rooftop gardens on buildings , is one of the most active discussions of rooftop gardens among cities around the world . At the center is the world’s largest rooftop vegetable garden , ‘ Brooklyn Grange ‘ . Long Island City Farm , Navy Yard Farm, Sunset Park Farm , and three rooftop gardens in the middle of New York are the world’s largest urban farming scales . crop It serves as an urban farm that not only grows, but also hosts educational events that have a positive ecological and social impact on the city .
“ A healthy urban community starts with utilizing our space as well as the countryside . ”
Brooklyn Grange, which opened in 2010 , has been providing programs that suggest a better lifestyle than the various leisure activities and socialization of city dwellers based on the rooftop of the building . A representative example is various social classes that have been operated under the theme of gardening after work for office workers . Under the guidance of landscape designer Will Axelrod , it is full of eco – friendly classes from indoor gardening to urban beekeeping . Brooklyn Grange opens a market every Sunday to sell crops harvested from its rooftop garden, and from May to October every year , it donates eco – friendly ingredients harvested directly to the underprivileged .
Harvesting about 45,000 kg of agricultural products every year and growing hydroponic lettuce in a greenhouse all year round, this vast farm has quickly established itself as a precious space for New Yorkers’ dining table and health . Brooklyn Grange Farm’s ‘ Community Supported Agriculture ( CSA) ‘ represents their philosophy that eating healthy organic vegetables is a basic human right and essential to life . It has achieved remarkable success over the past few years with the aim of reducing environmental pollution and promoting community development by focusing on healthy and fresh food .
The rooftop site is not limited to gardening and growing plants . Because in a big city there is no place for a better community than the top floor of a building . They host hobby classes in which they make crowns by decorating table centerpieces , bouquets or weaving flowers , while participants make their own homemade hot sauce using peppers harvested from their garden . We get together to make dumplings, and take yoga meditation classes while looking at the beautiful New York skyline at sunrise or sunset . Most of the separate workshops with a minimum of 2 people and a maximum of 20 people are sold out , so members who have experienced the workshop are highly loyal . near the manhattan bridge , The Brooklyn Grange, located within the Residential Tower, is praised by many media outlets as follows . “In a fast-paced and fast-paced city, it offers attractively the ‘diverse country life’ that people long for and want . ”
The post- pandemic era is predicted in several directions with the end of COVID – 19 . Buildings with roofs are being re-evaluated in these various ways . Spaces that were once used only as exclusive facilities for buildings such as cooling towers , water tanks , and elevator machine rooms are now recognized as essential elements of future residential and office buildings . Gensler , an architectural design firm in the United States , analyzes , “ After COVID- 19 , the rooftop garden has been used as a space for various opportunities to improve the experience of building users and raise their quality of life to a higher level . ”
Brooklyn Grange, who recently planned an artist workshop with the lifestyle brand ‘ Toast ‘ , said that ‘ a harmonious and ecologically sound urban community does not have to be obtained only from the remote countryside, but starts from utilizing our space ‘ . suggests _ Instead of an observatory offering a great city view and a rooftop bar with a good atmosphere selling expensive cocktails, what is needed for our city , the rooftop of a high-rise apartment building, isn’t nature ?
