FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Rooftop recreation

Rooftop recreation

Commercial facilities in Japan are increasingly offering gardens, allotments and even running tracks

A variety of interesting spots are popping up on the roofs of Japanese shopping centres, department stores and other commercial facilities these days, including vegetable gardens, a park inspired by a famous series of paintings and a running track. These evolving rooftops are the perfect place to enjoy the clear autumn sky.
Vegetable gardens are a recent standout among rooftop innovations. Mark Is Minatomirai, a shopping mall that opened in Yokohama in 2013, has a 1,000-square-metre rooftop garden named Minna no Niwa, which offers a place to rest and attracts shoppers with their kids, office workers and others.
Twenty-two kinds of citruses are cultivated in the garden, including the Shonan Gold cultivar, and about 100 species of vegetables. Free events such as the digging and roasting of sweet potatoes are held throughout the year.
“Families enjoy these events, with parents saying they’re glad to have their kids experience agriculture in an urban setting. More than 10,000 people had participated in our events as of this spring,” manager Toru Habuchi says.
Shopping centre chain operator Aeon Town has established rental vegetable gardens on the rooftops of its malls in Nagoya and Funabashi. The company rents 0.7-square-metre plots for 880 yen (Bt260) per month, and offers 184 plots in Nagoya and 180 in Funabashi.
Tenants can rent as few as one of these sections, enjoying vegetable gardening when they come to shop.
At the Seibu Ikebukuro department store in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward, a rooftop garden opened in April this year, inspired by a garden used as a motif in Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” paintings. Covering about 360 square metres, the rooftop green space has an arched bridge over a pond with water lilies, and about 80 kinds of flowers and plants that include a rambling rose and about 20 kinds of trees. A weeping willow drapes its branches over the pond.
Rooftop gardens have been emerging in response to regulations established by some local governments, mainly in large cities, requiring greenery of a certain standard on the premises of new buildings. The regulations were designed to protect the environment and control the heat island phenomenon in which temperatures rise in urban areas.
Commercial facilities can also expect to attract a wider range of customers through rooftop greening.
Says Kaoru Matsumoto, a member of the non-profit organisation Sky Front Forum, “Commercial facilities are examining how to use rooftop greening to contribute to their profits. There will be more (rooftop) events that draw a lot of customers.”
According to a survey by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, about 413.8 hectares of rooftop gardens, equivalent to about 580 soccer fields, were set up from 2000 to 2014.
Rooftop spaces are being utilised for other purposes as well – Morinomiya Q’s Mall Base, a shopping mall opened this April in Osaka, has a running track on its rooftop named Health Aid Air Track where anyone can run for free.
The rooftop track has three lanes that are 300 meters a lap, and a surface of artificial turf. Located in front of Osaka Castle Park, which attracts many amateur runners, the commercial facility was built on the former site of the Nippon Life Insurance Baseball Stadium, where professional baseball games were played. The rooftop running track was established with the sports-friendly character of the location in mind.
At Tokyu Plaza Kamata, a shopping centre in Tokyo, a classic playground featuring a Ferris wheel was reopened on the roof last autumn. The playground was closed in March 2014, but “many requests from local people” led to its reopening, according to the centre’s manager, Shigeru Kaneko.
 
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