Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) plans to promote rooftop gardens next year as part of an effort to realize his stated goal of turning Taipei into a “garden city.”
Ko announced the plan to transform building rooftops into gardens at a news conference yesterday as he launched a year-end review of his garden city policy.
“The garden city is an new industry,” Ko said, adding that next year the city would promote the transformation of rooftops into gardens.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Spending NT$100,000 to NT$150,000 on a rooftop would not only transform a concrete roof into a garden where residents can exercise and engage in leisure activities, but also help ensure the building remains cool in the summer, reducing the need for air conditioning, Ko said.
The mayor said he plans to promote rooftop gardens at schools, public institutions and government buildings, as well as private buildings, adding that the Taipei City Hall’s rooftop would be the first on the list.
The cost of transforming a rooftop which Ko mentioned refers to a subsidy the Taipei City Government plans to pay for a rooftop transformation.
The garden city policy was one of Ko’s policy white papers published during his electoral campaign in 2014, which also envisioned Taipei becoming a city where residents grow food for their own consumption.
The implementation of the policy began soon after Ko took office in December 2014, starting with the cultivation of farmland on patches of unused or waste land.
As of last year, there were 92,178m2 of urban gardens in Taipei and 25,674 people had participated in the program, according to Taipei Public Works Department data.
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