Laying the Foundation

When we discussed the need for a pilot garden with our sponsors, they recommended we consider using the Prestwich Memorial building. The building was an attractive option because it is managed by a Cape Town city official, was originally constructed to support a rooftop garden, has water and electrical access, and is waterproof. We discussed this possibility with the building manager who asked us to draft designs for the space.
The original design for the pilot garden included two production areas, a memorial area, an oyster mushroom substrate inoculation space, and a washing and packaging station. . Since our original design cost more than was likely to be available, we simplified the design so that funding was requested for only one of the production spaces. The washing and packaging station was incorporated into this section, and the substrate inoculation area was moved to another section of the roof. Figures 9 and 10 show our design for the pilot rooftop garden, with a projected cost of roughly R200 000. This proposal has been submitted to the City, and a decision to fund the project is forthcoming. If this project is funded and becomes operational, concrete data will be recorded and allow for a more compelling proposal to gain funding for the 1000 m2 start-up rooftop gardening programme.

Design Proposal for Prestwich (.PDF, 6.6 MB)

Prestwich Memorial Proposal (.PDF, 8.3 MB)

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