Rooftop Garden Initiative
Experience the beauty of nature in the heart of your campus. Transforming urban spaces into flourishing learning opportunities.
The Reality
Cities are growing. Green spaces are disappearing.
Rapid urbanization contributes to reduced quality of life in cities. With every concrete building that is added to the skyline we gain hotter cities, increased air pollution, and loss of biodiversity.
Our Mission
Creating sustainable living learning environments
With nearly 70% of the world's population living in cities by 2050, we need to rethink how we utilize campus space.
Our Vision
Maybe the solution was above us all along.
Rooftop gardens taken from the broader concept of green roofs are vegetated rooftops that restore biodiversity to urban environments. Green roofs offer a wide range of benefits like improved air quality, habitat creation, repurposing food waste, and combating the urban heat island (UHI) effect. They also support pollinators that benefit the local ecosystem.
In addition to reducing environmental impact, rooftop gardens can be used as a tool to enhance student learning.
​They are capable of providing educational benefits across a wide range of programs, from nutrition and culinary arts to environmental science, architecture, and agriculture.
Rising temperatures, worsening air quality, and heightened awareness of climate change make environmental action urgent.
These gardens provide both a functional and visually appealing way to address climate change and inspire campus-wide sustainability efforts.
“My profession, landscape architecture, should not be left as the last amenity to be added while finishing up a project. Landscape architecture should not take up the last of the budget for some minor greening. Instead, landscape architecture should be the source of the initial concept and be the voice for, and restorer of, a healthy urban environment.”
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, Landscape Architect
Student Impact
Diverse opportunities for engagement.
Explore various programs that integrate rooftop gardens into their course curricula.
Culinary Arts
A rooftop garden becomes an on-site “living pantry” where students can:
Harvest fresh ingredients for farm-to-table cooking
Agriculture
Gain real-life hands-on agricultural experience maintaining the rooftop garden, including:
Crop selection and rotation suited for rooftop and urban farming
Environmental Science
The garden acts as a real-world ecological lab where students can study:
Urban ecology and biodiversity (pollinators, soil organisms, and plant-insect interactions)
Architecture
The garden becomes a living case study for:
Green roof design and its structural requirements (load-bearing, waterproofing, drainage layers)
Administrative Impact
Doors unlocked through dedication to sustainability.
Explore the opportunities rooftop garden implementation would introduce to our campuses.
Strategic & Institutional Benefits
Strengthens the university’s sustainability leadership
Visible green infrastructure is a powerful marketing asset for tours, viewbooks, and promotional materials.
Operational & Financial Benefits
Improves energy efficiency and reduces operating costs
Extends roof lifespan by protecting the roofing membrane from UV and temperature stress.
Academic & Research Benefits
Expands research and grant opportunities
Supports experimental learning programs, internships, and student research projects.
Health, Wellness, & Campus Life Benefits
Enhances student and staff well-being
Green spaces promote relaxation, stress reduction, and mental health, important for retention and academic success.
Successful Projects
Rooftop Gardens Thriving Around the World
Explore various institutions that successfully integrate rooftop gardens into campus environments.
Thammasat University
The rooftop garden at Thammasat University, designed by landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom, turns the campus roof into a sustainable, multi-purpose space for learning, food production, and water management. It supplies fresh produce, filters stormwater, incorporates solar power, and serves as outdoor classroom for students.
Duke University
Duke University’s rooftop garden uses bisolar energy, integrating plant growth with solar power in a mutually beneficial system. Designed to reduce the building’s environmental footprint, the garden also serves as a shared space for research and community engagement, where students and faculty can grow their own produce.
The University of Warsaw
The 21,000-square-foot rooftop garden above the University of Warsaw’s library in Poland attracts roughly one million visitors each year. It has become a well-loved destination for peaceful walks and relaxation. Like Duke University, the University of Warsaw also incorporates bisolar power into its rooftop garden design.
Auburn University
Auburn University offers a unique, hands-on learning experience that brings together students from multiple departments. The 4,400-square-foot rooftop garden, managed by faculty, students, and The Department of Horticulture. It sits atop the university’s culinary center and serves as a learning hub for cross-department collaboration. Horticulture students cultivate and maintain the garden, while culinary students transform its fresh produce into creative dishes, connecting learning with real-world practice.
“I have also learned that design now has unexpected clients — the birds and the bees. They don’t have a voice, but we have a responsibility to look after their needs, not only because we depend on them, but because we have a responsibility toward them. We are now serving ‘clients’ well beyond the ones that pay us ...”
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, Landscape Architect
Empowering
Pollinators
The addition of a rooftop garden on campus also opens doors for pollinator preservation, studies, and observation. Among the species that benefit most are honey bees, vital for pollinating fruits, vegetables, and livestock feed. Urban environments, surprisingly, can improve bee survival compared to farmland. Honeybee immunologist and CEO of The Best Bees Company Noah Wilson-Rich explains that city-dwelling bees survive winter more successfully and produce more honey. Protecting honey bees is crucial not only for biodiversity but for food security. Pairing an urban beehive with a rooftop garden would display the university’s dedication to preserving the survival of one of our most important pollinators. This addition would also help sustain local ecosystems and make environmental stewardship visible on campus.
Urban Bees & Their Role
Bees play a vital role in supporting the health and biodiversity of our urban environments. In cities, they pollinate a wide range of plants, including street trees, community gardens, parks, yards, and rooftop gardens, helping sustain the greenery that enriches our environment. Urban areas often have an unexpectedly rich variety of flowering plants, providing bees with a steady and diverse source of nutrients. As community gardens and rooftop farms continue to expand, bees have become essential for improving the quality and quantity of fruits and vegetables and increasing overall crop yields. Cities can also serve as refuges for bee populations in decline elsewhere, offering varied microhabitats and diverse plant life that allow bees to thrive.
