Belgium: Agrotopia is a giant rooftop greenhouse built atop an existing building
“A single building featuring different climate zones, sustainable and economical use of space, research into leafy vegetables and fruit vegetables in the city, opening up the rooftop to a public function, circular use of space and energy, to name but a few.”
By Rima Sabina
DeZeen
4 February 2022
Meta Architectuurbureau and Van Bergen Kolpa Architecten have designed Agrotopia, a greenhouse in Belgium that was added to the roof of an agricultural market to create an urban food production centre.
Located in the city of Roeselare, Agrotopia is Europe’s largest public building for urban food production and will be used to both farm food and educate the public about agriculture.
The 9,500-square-metre greenhouse was built on top of the REO Veiling agricultural auction market. It was commissioned by REO Veiling together with Flemish farming and horticulture research institute Inagro.
Inside, Agrotopia is divided into four climate zones to allow it to grow a number of different fruits and vegetables, and the building also has research facilities and an educational trail for the general public.
The architects created box-in-box spaces within the warm and humid greenhouse so that the areas dedicated to research and education would have a more suitable climate for the people working in the building.
From the outside, Agrotopia appears as one cohesive greenhouse that Meta Architectuurbureau describes as “a proud, transparent sculpture of steel and glass”.
