Farming in Kindergarten

Creation of new green areas

The main goals of the intervention are as follows: 1. To provide an educational experience to preschoolers in terms of sustainable agriculture and green lifestyles by designing an experimental vegetable garden (to teach children the importance of agriculture and their relationship with nature) as well as planting trees. (3) 2. To reaffirm the importance of sustainable use associated with green buildings, vertical gardens and natural ventilation through automatic gas analysis on computers. (3) 3. To employ energy-saving methods that are comprehensively applied but not limited to: green roofs as insulation, green facade as shading and solar water heating in order to raise educational awareness about sustainability. (5) 4. To respond to food security needs caused by increased droughts, floods and salinization. (5)

The project was designed in 2011 by Vo Trong Nghia, Takashi Niwa, Masaaki Iwamoto. The implementation team, Pou Chen Corporation (owner of the factory) built a 200m2 vegetable garden on the roof of the kindergarten that included 5 types of vegetables to create educational opportunities for the children frequenting the institution. Throughout the initiative, local materials (e.g. brick, tile) and low-tech construction methods were adopted in order to reduce environmental impact as well as promote local industry. A more appropriate description is provided in one of the sources (2): "The building is designed as a continuous narrow strip with windows that can be opened on either side to maximize natural ventilation and lighting. In addition, architectural and mechanical energy-saving methods are comprehensively applied including but not limited to: green roofs as insulation, a green facade for shade and solar hot water." Factory wastewater is recycled to irrigate trees and flush toilets (2,5). The building is covered by vertical louvres made of pre-cast concrete, which is utilized as "vertical garden" for creepers such as bitter gourd and cucumber. Management of the garden is split between the teachers and the parents of the children, with harvested rainwater being used to irrigate the garden. Rainfall is collected by the wide gutter, which is covered by pre-cast concrete panels and utilized as an access pathway to the vegetable gardens on the roof (6).

• Private sector/Corporate/Company
• Citizens or community groups
• Young people and children