1. General information
Location and description of the intervention
City or FUA
Utrecht
Region
Europe
Native title of the NBS intervention
de Tuinfabriek
Short description of the intervention
The Garden Factory ('Tuinfabriek') is an exceptional urban agriculture project on a roof of the central station that aims at becoming the largest food-producing roof of the Netherlands. The project is a self-sustaining vegetable garden located on the roof of a busy mall in the centre of Utrecht (ref. 5). On the roof, citizens, students, company employees and schools work together to grow vegetables and keep bees and chicken. The Garden Factory reflects an ecological 'self-sustaining factory' as the chickens, worms and bees 'work' in the garden as being part of the decomposing system and pollination and a system is built for rainwater retention that allows for irrigation (ref. 1). Eating, composting, sowing, growing, harvesting, cooking form the production process of this Garden Factory (ref. 4).
The main elements of the roof garden are in place, such as the crop bins, the chicken coop and the decomposing machine are completed. However, it is an ongoing developing project as some elements are still in development stage such as some elements of the Soup Kitchen and the aim is to integrate the Garden Factory more with the central station shopping mall in multiple ways (ref. 1).
Address

Stationsplein
97
3511ED Utrecht
Netherlands

Location
Point location, which indicates where the NBS takes place
Type of area before implementation of the NBS
Building
Website of the intervention
http://detuinfabriek.org
Timeline of intervention
Start date of the intervention (planning process)
unknown
Start date of intervention (implementation process)
2013
End date of the intervention
unknown
Present stage of the intervention
Completed
Please specify "other" stage of the intervention
The main elements of the roof garden are in place, such as the crop bins, the chicken coop and the decomposing machine are completed. However, it is an ongoing developing project as some elements are still in development stage such as some elements of the Soup Kitchen and the aim is to integrate the Garden Factory more with the central station shopping mall in multiple ways (ref. 1).
Goals of the intervention
The main objective is to become the largest food-producing roof of the Netherlands (sustainable food production) (ref. 1). Other goals are:
-Social cohesion (not directly stated), but the roof was formally closed due to nuisance by junks and is now reopened because of the roof garden and supports participation as everyone who would like to participate is allowed to do so (ref. 1)
-Education: a primary school is involved in the Garden Factory as children learn about the processes of food production: decomposing, gardening, harvesting, collecting organic waste. Also, the Garden Cantine is a meeting spot in which gardening techniques are exchanged (ref. 1)
-Pollination: due to the bee keeping on the roof (ref. 1)
-Eating, composting, sowing, growing, harvesting, cooking form the production process of this Garden Factory (ref. 4)
Quantitative targets
No quantitative targets specified.
Monitoring indicators defined
No monitoring indicators specified.
Sustainability challenge(s) addressed
Water management (SDG 6)
Stormwater and rainfall management and storage
Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
Habitat and biodiversity conservation
Green space creation and/or management
Environmental quality
Soil quality improvement
Regeneration, land-use and urban development
Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
Social cohesion
Social interaction
Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12)
Sustainable consumption
Sustainable production
Habitats and biodiversity conservation: What types of conservation goals are / were defined for the NBS intervention?
Species-focused
Habitats and biodiversity conservation: What activities are implemented to realize the conservation goals and targets?
Protect and enhance urban habitats
Create new habitats
Protect species
Undertake specific measures to protect species
Undertake specific measures to protect native species
Undertake specific measures to protect valued species
Means for conservation governance
Manage biological resources for conservation and sustainable use
Raise public awareness
Public engagement
Implementation activities
Food production: seeding, gardening, harvesting
Decomposing: collecting organic waste from citizens and businesses (including a supermarket and a flower shop) and putting this in the hand-made decomposing machine
Taking care of the chickens: cleaning the chicken coops, moving around the 'mobile chicken coops' in order to move around the chicken from one crop bin to the next. `
Cooking: in the Soup Kitchen, soup is made from the vegetables, which is then brought to the central station mall`
Exchange of gardening techniques in the Garden Cantine (ref. 1)
Type of NBS project
Creation of new green areas
NBS domain and interventions
Ecological domain(s) where the NBS intervention(s) is/are implemented
Nature on buildings (external)
Green roofs
Community gardens and allotments
Community gardens
Green areas for water management
Sustainable urban drainage systems
Type of Green Roof
Extensive Green Roof: depth 3 - 5 inches; plants: Mosses, Sedums, Succulents, Herbs and few Grasses; Low maintenance and costs
Please specify the number of plots or allotment gardens
Unknown
What is the level of innovation / development of the NBS related to water management?
Low: Simple rain water collection intervention (rain garden, local seepage pit) or simple permeable areas
Vegetation Type
Grass
Trees
Flower beds
Garden beds
Please specify how many trees were planted
Unknown
Amenities offered by the NBS
Benches and drinking water stations
Viewing and outlook points
Services
Expected ecosystem services delivered
Provisioning services
Food for human consumption (crops, vegetables)
Raw materials
Medicinal resources
Regulating services
Pollination
Habitat and supporting services
Habitats for species
Cultural services
Inspiration for culture, art and design
Intellectual interactions (scientific and / or educational)
Physical and experiential interactions with plants and animals
Social and community interactions
Scale
Spatial scale
Sub-microscale: Street scale (including buildings)
Beneficiaries
Primary Beneficiaries
Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
Private sector/Corporate/Company
Citizens or community groups
Governance
Governance arrangements
Led by non-government actors
Non-government actors
Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
Private sector/Corporate/Business
Citizens or community groups
Coalition with multiple of the above
Please specify the roles of the specific government and non-government actor groups involved in the initiative
The initiative to create a roof garden originally came from employees of Corio (company) and as a response to the City of the Mall art manifestation, an art designer, Ester van de Wiel has expanded the garden and created the Garden Factory out of it. Now, citizens of the neighborhood around central station, students, a primary school and the designer herself are responsible for the maintenance of the Garden Factory and they are supported by the municipality of Utrecht and Corio (ref. 1, 3).
Key actors - initiating organization
Private sector/corporate actor/company
Citizens or community group
Other
Please specify other key actors – Initiating organization
An art designer: Ester van de Wiel (ref. 1) Also: not the company itself was the initiator, but employees of Corio (ref. 1)
Land owners
Private sector or company
Key actors - Other stakeholders involved (besides initiating actors)
Local government/municipality
Public sector institution
Private sector/corporate actor/company
Citizens or community group
Land owners
Private sector or company
Participatory methods/forms of community involvement used
Crowd-sourcing/Crowd-funding/Participatory budget
Taskforce groups
Dissemination of information and education
Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)
Co-management/Joint management
Citizen oversight (e.g. boards, advisory)
Policy drivers
NBS intervention implemented in response to an Regional Directive/Strategy
Unknown
NBS intervention implemented in response to a national regulations/strategy/plan
Unknown
NBS intervention implemented in response to a local regulation/strategy/plan
Unknown
Mandatory or voluntary intervention
Voluntary (spontaneous)
Please specify other type of voluntary intervention
Voluntarily started by company employees, citizens and the art designer (ref. 1)
Enablers
Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS vision/strategy/plan - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS section/part in a more general plan - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Presence of city network or regional partnerships focused on NBS - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Presence of GI / NBS research project - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Subsidies/investment for GI / NBS in the city - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Co-finance for NBS
Yes
Co-financing governance arrangements
Unknown
Was this co-governance arrangement already in place, or was it set up specifically for this NBS?
Unknown
Financing
Total cost
Unknown
What is/was the Cost/Budget (EUR) of the NBS or green infrastructure elements?
Unknown
What are the total amount of expected annual maintenance costs?
Unknown
What is the expected annual maintenance costs of the NBS or GI elements?
Unknown
Please specify cost savings
Unknown
Please specify total cost (EUR)
Unknown
Source(s) of funding
Crowdfunding
Type of fund(s) used
Donations
Non-financial contribution
Yes
Type of non-financial contribution
Provision of goods
Provision of labour
Other
Please specify other type of non-financial contribution
Provision of waste by Albert Heijn (supermarket) and a flower shop in the central station mall (ref. 1)
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
Public authorities (e.g. land, utility services)
Citizens (e.g. volunteering)
Business models
Green densification model
Which of the involved actors was motivated by this model?
Private for-profit actor (e.g. firm, insurer)
Type of innovation
Technological
Product innovation
Process innovation
Please specify technological innovation
Although it is uncertain to what extent these product design are completely innovative, the bee keeping structure is designed in an eco-friendly way to ensure that the bees are not burdened by the architectural structure and constructions of the Hoog Catherine central station mall (see pictures). [1]
Also the chicken coops seem innovative as they are mobile and therefore allow the chickens to 'help' gardening, this is called the 'Chicken Tractor' (see pictures) [1]
Process innovation: creating a completely self-sustaining ecological 'factory' which does not require water or energy and is completely self-managed by citizens seems a process innovation. A combination of waste management, decomposing, growing crops and cooking seems a small example of a sustainable food system. [1]
Novelty level of the innovation
The innovation is completely new without connections to previous initiative(s)
Please specify novelty level of the innovation
The Garden Factory seems an exceptional initiative to create a food system that is completely self-sustaining and run by citizens. It is designed by an art designer who was nominated for the Dutch Design Awards. [1]
Replicability/Transferability
Unknown
Please specify Replicability/Transferability
Unknown
Impacts, benefits
Environmental impacts
Water management and blue areas
Improved stormwater management
Green space and habitat
Increased green space area
Increased number of species present
Enhanced support of pollination
Description of environmental benefits
- Rainwater is collected to irrigate the vegetables, herbs and fruit. The organic waste from stores is processed into compost that enables the Garden Factory to expand its production fields. In addition, there are worms, bees and chickens working as gardeners who have specialized in composting, dusting, weeding and hoeing (ref. 4)
- The urban beekeeper is the other very special feature of the garden thus enhancing pollination of plants (ref. 1)
Economic impacts
Increase in agricultural production (for profit or not)
Description of economic benefits
Increase in agricultural production: Four types of tomatoes: Sungold, Choco Rosso, Green Grape that ripens yellow-green and Red Grape Sugar Plum are all shrub tomatoes that do well on the roof. Furthermore, herbs: dill, coriander, Japanese parsley and Amsterdam cut parsley are also grown. On a trial basis: A watermelon that gives small fruits, 4 pickles, and 10 small cuttings of the soybean that stays nice and small and hopefully gives delicious beans. (ref. 1)
Social and cultural impacts
Social justice and cohesion
Improved access to urban green space
Increased opportunities for social interaction
Increased access to healthy/affordable food
Increased sustainability of agriculture practices
Education
Increased support for education and scientific research
Description of social and cultural benefits
- The garden is used by local residents, schools and employees of the shopping mall. In summer season free events take place here (ref. 5)
- A cobbled square with benches, lighting and rubbish bins designed as a nice place to hang out (ref. 4)
- Eating, composting, sowing, growing, harvesting, cooking form the production process of this Garden Factory. Work is done by local residents and office workers (ref. 4)
- It's a great opportunity for the public to collect fresh honey, for school kids to learn growing vegetables and harvest them, and for people to cook vegetables and eat together (ref. 1)
-The garden also positively affects education, particularly for primary school children (ref. 1)
Type of reported impacts
Expected impacts
Achieved impacts
Indicators
Unknown
Environmental, social and economic impacts
Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
Environmental quality
Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)
Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12)
Analysis of specific impact categories
Job creation: The NBS created ...
Voluntary work opportunities
Negative impacts: Did the project cause any problems or concerns?
No information was found regarding negative impacts of the project
COVID-19 pandemic
Unknown as of 29 July 2020.
Methods of impact monitoring
Process of recording NBS impacts
No evidence in public records
Methods used to evaluate the impacts of NBS
Unknown
Evidence for use of assessment
Presence of an assessment, evaluation and/or monitoring process
Unknown
Presence of indicators used in reporting
No evidence in public records
Presence of monitoring/evaluation reports
No evidence in public records
Availability of a web-based monitoring tool
No evidence in public records
Impact assessment mechanism
Name of any specific impact assessment tools
Unknown
Use of GIS in mapping impacts
No evidence in public records
Citizen involvement
Citizens involvement in assessment/evaluation
Unknown
Citizens involvement in the analysis of the assessment/evaluation
Unknown
Follow-up to the evaluation / assessment
Unknown
References
Web links relevant to the intervention
Website of the Garden Factory
List of references
1. detuinfabriek. (2018). de Tuinfabriek. [online] Available at: http://detuinfabriek.org/home/ (Accessed 29 July 2020)
2. Mathieu. (2014). De tuinfabriek: moestuinieren op het dak van Hoog Catherijne. [online] Available at: https://www.tuinenbalkon.nl/de-tuinfabriek-moestuinieren-op-het-dak-van-hoog-catherijne (Accessed 29 July 2020)
3. Dutch Design Awards. (2014). Studio Ester van de Wiel De Tuinfabriek. [online] Available at: https://versbeton.nl/2014/10/dutch-design-awards-ester-van-de-wiel-droomt-van-rijdende-keukens-en-een-hanenclub/ (Accessed 29 July 2020)
4. Ester van de Wiel. (n.d.). The Garden Factory (2013 – 2017). Available at: https://estervandewiel.wordpress.com/de-tuinfabriek/ (Accessed 29 July 2020)
5. InsideFlows. (n.d.). The garden factory. Available at: https://www.insideflows.org/project/the-garden-factory/ (Accessed 29 July 2020)
Additional comments
The Garden Factory was nominated for the Dutch Design Awards and participated in the art manifestation Call of the Mall (ref. 1, 3)
Comments and notes
Pictures of the NBS
/sites/default/files/nbs/images/tuinfabriek4.jpg
/sites/default/files/nbs/images/bee_keeping_design.jpeg
/sites/default/files/nbs/images/tuinfabriek1.jpg
Public Images
The garden factory
The garden factory
Source: Ref. 2