Rooftop Greenhouse Agrotopia
architecturefoodcircular

Rooftop greenhouse Agrotopia is Europe's largest research centre for urban food production. With its faceted glass facades, monumental entrance staircase and stacking of functions, Agrotopia gives a striking architectural appearance to horticulture on the roofs of the city. The innovative building is an example for future food production in the city, intensive use of space, circular energy and water use and making greenhouse horticulture more sustainable.

Agrotopia is built on the roof of the vegetable and fruit auction REO on the ring road of Roeselare; the logistics heart of West Flanders for fruit and vegetables. With a spectacular view of the wider area and the city, urban horticulture on industrial roofs is given a prominent place in the skyline of Roeselare.

"The building accommodates climates for plants and humans under a conservatory roof."

Building for research and education
The 9,500 m2 building contains high-tech research facilities for the cultivation of fruity and leafy vegetables, surrounded by an educational route for the general public.

The entrance with wide, ascending stairs leads to the Urban Horticulture square with visitor facilities in the heart of the building. In the facade conservatory on the ring road there is a double-height conservatory for innovative vertical cultivation. The foot of the double-height facade conservatory is used to store rainwater from the roof, which is used to irrigate the crops.

The building houses climates for plants and humans under one conservatory roof. Warm and humid climate compartments for plant research. The box-in-box spaces for meetings and education have a climate that is adapted to people. In between are the public spaces with air misting that can be used to temper the perceived temperature on hot days.

Transparent sculpture
Rooftop Greenhouse Agrotopia is a proud, transparent sculpture of glass and steel. The architecture consists of a thin greenhouse construction that stands out against the sky and rests on the concrete base of the box shed. The entire building consists of one standard conservatory with diffused glass.

The greenhouse on the two cantilevered building heads has a special appearance due to the expressive, faceted facades in transparent glass. On the entrance side, the faceted facade forms vertical glass bay windows that offer the option of applying targeted sun protection while retaining views in and out. On the west side of the facade conservatory along the ring road, the horizontal structure in facets guarantees a good incidence of the sun's rays for the crop and a reflection-free view from ground level.

New generation of city farmers
Agrotopia is the building where the new generation of urban gardeners of the future are trained. The future urban horticulturist will not only learn how to grow leafy vegetables and fruit vegetables, but will also learn how to work with new technologies and revenue models.

Circular water and energy use
All the rainwater that is collected with the buildings roof is used to irrigate the plants and the residual water is cleaned and reused. Municipal residual heat from the nearby Mirom waste incinerator heats the greenhouse. In short, Agrotopia lives in a circular symbiosis with the city.

Client: Inagro and REO Veiling
Project initiation: Vlaams Bouwmeester and ILVO
Co-Architect: Meta Architecture Office
Project: 9500m2 Research facilities for vegetable cultivation with visitor facilities
Location: Oostnieuwkerksesteenweg Roeselare Belgium
Planning: design 2015-2017, construction 2018-2021
Construction costs: 11,8 mi euro
Cultivation techniques: Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture
Constructor: Tractebel engineers
Installations: Tractebel engineers
Greenhouse construction: Smiemans projects
Photography: Filip Dujardin, Fillipo Rossi