Background
This project was carried out under the "2021 Nanshan Co-build Gardens Program" jointly initiated by Shenzhen Green Foundation, Shekou Community Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy, led by Nanshan Urban Management And Law Enforcement Bureau. Most of the gardens under the program are on the ground floor facing streets, but our site is on the roof of a 6-storey apartment in an urban village. We see three major difficulties in this project. The first, the open roof is separated from the urban traffic network, which is good for creating a relaxing space where time flows slowly like an "oasis in the city", but the isolation from the ground also makes it difficult to create a community space where people naturally gather. The second, the initial budget for the project is only enough to build a small garden of less than 150-square-meter, which is too small to be an independent space attracting the community. The third, due to the strong sunlight on the exposed roof in Shenzhen during the day, a sunshade canopy is necessary in order to allow people to stay comfortably, but it is difficult to obtain building permission for the canopy from the urban management department. With these difficulties, we began to think about how to make this roof a new community place where people would like to gather.