Imagine a future where cities are not just a collection of buildings, roads and a single park here and there, but a place where the green environment from the beginning is integrated into, on and around the buildings as a whole.
Imagine furthermore that the green is not just improving the quality of life for city residents, but also plays a key role in the fight against the rapidly growing precipitation problems and provides biological purification of both air and water. And that an urban bio production is also made possible as a part of the vision. In short, this is about sustainable urban spaces and living environments.
New Test Center for Urban Gardening
AgroTech has signed a performance contract with the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The budget for knowledge building and application-oriented research is EUR 1.4 mill. The projects period is 2010-2012. A part of the funds is for the establishment of a Test Center at AgroTech. The Test Center will consist of an outdoor section with green roofs and walls, and an indoor section with greenhouse facilities. The first green test roof has already been established.
Requirements for Knowledge Level
The ambition is to combine biological and technological competencies across industries for the benefit of companies. AgroTech anticipate a great potential in a world where the proportion of city residents will increase from 50 % to 70 % towards 2050. The requirements for knowledge level are high in order to qualify for this position and to gain market share.
The activities under this performance contract will:
- Develop technological solutions based on biological requirements in order to develop on existing green environments as well as to create entirely new urban solutions.
- Contribute to realize visions and plans for climate neutrality and to resolve the precipitation problems.
- Increase the quality of life by ensuring access to green environments and nearness to nature.
In addition to knowledge building, we conduct a series of demonstration projects in cooperation with external partners.
Technological Services
The five technological services to be developed are:
- Technical and biological requirement specifications for urban greening
- Growing plants in green environments
- Advice to building contractors in e.g. requirements for dimensioning
- Provide the best conditions for green environments in offices, establishments and private homes
- Cradle to grave analysis (Cradle to Cradle /C2C)
In addition, development of technical solutions for irrigation and rain water management.
Target Group
The results will be useful to a wide range of companies:
- Suppliers of technology for green environments and buildings
- Suppliers of equipment for glass buildings, irrigation systems and indoor plantation
- Housing associations and large property owners - particularly public housing - facing renovation tasks
- Nurseries and green houses
- Companies working with planting in offices and public spaces
- Municipalities
- Architects
Background
Denmark is generally lagging behind in terms of urban gardening in the cities, whereas several countries have made a roof policy e.g. Germany, which has led to a city such as Stuttgart has several green roofs actually 80 % of all flat roofs. Elsewhere, whole green cities are established such as Masdar in Abu Dhabi, Treasure Island in the U.S. and Dongtan in China. Therefore, it is now time for Denmark to implement their research and development activities to ensure that Danish companies will be the suppliers of technology and know-how to the area.
Benefits of Green Roofs and Buildings
- Lowers the temperature in the cities
- Collects the rainwater
- Affects the CO2-balance positively
- Contributes to clean the air
- Have an insulating effect on buildings in the winter
- Have a cooling effect on buildings in the summer
- Biodiversity
