Located in the inner-city community of Bankview, GROW is a 20-unit multi-residential housing project that showcases diversity. This intensive project introduces urban horticulture on a scale never seen before across Calgary. The 20 varying sizes of units contain a 6-acre rooftop urban farm. A barrier-free amenity space integrates private gardens, vegetated roofs, and apiaries and exceeds onerous landscape and amenity requirements. This caters to walking the dog and other reasons why the user would enjoy fresh air, encouraging spontaneous interaction in an active, exciting environment.
GROW is a concept of living collectively, which goes way beyond circulatory areas or mailrooms, in which diversity at the unit level and urban farming become natural and spontaneous. The diversity of residents in a building, from children to seniors, will participate in the periodic planting, daily tending, and harvesting. From the all-inclusive setup, the residents will gain much more than just an association with sustainable agriculture but also a connection with Calgary’s community through the preparations and weekly sales of the harvest baskets. Emphasising place-based community building is a significant tool in offsetting increased social division and isolating serious health effects. Activities like farming create a trust and common goal of nurturing resources for community benefit. Hence, GROW’s active social environments will see the barriers of age and other demographic di...