Farming hits the high life

The rooftop garden is one of 10 community gardens whose construction was initiated by the urban management department with the city's Nanshan district last year.

The other gardens are mostly on the ground close to the streets.

The rooftop garden is the only "floating green land" and has turned out to be a success, bringing young people together and enhancing their sense of community.

It is open to the public in the daytime, and visitors only need to register at the reception on the first floor to get access.

The rooftop idyll covers a total area of 450 square meters and consists of a sightseeing zone, a shaded leisure area as well as the urban farming section.

"There's space to exercise, like doing yoga at the leisure zone, and then to walk over to check the vegetables," says Xie Jing, an architect from the Shenzhen-based 11 Architecture, a company which undertook the project.

Xie's company applied a modular design.

Her team had more than 700 plastic logistic containers, each customized as a small plantation. They were all colored green and then arranged to create a variegated landscape that is pleasing to the eye.

Some containers can be covered with a wooden lid to serve as chairs.

"The casing soil in the container is very light, and wouldn't put too much of a burden on the drainage system of the roof," Xie says.

Thanks to the container, the roots of the vegetables will not interfere with the roof's waterproof layer. The porous bottom of each container is laid with filtering layers of ceramic particles and nonwoven fabrics.

"So, when too much water is applied to the plants, or there is heavy rain, the overflow can be purified and is discharged through the original drainage system of the building," Xie says.

The shaded area is also an important part of the rooftop design.

"The summer is smoldering hot in Shenzhen, and exposure to the sun for 10 minutes will be too much," Xie says.