Top 11 Gorgeous Rooftop Gardens Ideas

City dwellers no longer need to seek out a rare park to escape the concrete jungle, as many can find a relaxing, lush atmosphere above the penthouse in their apartment buildings. Rooftop gardens offer a relaxing escape from city life while promoting sustainability by using an often overlooked aspect of buildings – their tops. This list of the Top 11 Rooftop Gardens includes locations from all over the world, each with their own unique qualities and spectacular views. Read on to find a place for solace in your city, or to find inspiration for your own urban abode.

11. Upscale Entertaining

This rooftop provides a luxurious place to entertain family and friends within urban environment. The garden borrows features of more traditional intimate patios and backyards, such as natural woods, brick, pathway lighting, and candles. The multiple levels of this outdoor space allow for numerous types of events and groups to meet, demonstrating a more dynamic and fluid space for a party or gathering. While the bright lights and tall concrete structures can be seen in the distance, this rooftop feels cozy and inviting.

10. Modern Urban Farm

The Vancouver Club’s  rooftop combines contemporary farming with a relaxing atmosphere for an urban rooftop. The design uses simple geometries to create a sense of calm and organization, while natural wood and colorful plants keep things fun and bright. Form also meets function with integrated plant beds and benches. Rooftop gardens like this that are able to grow herbs, fruits, and vegetables provide fresh and local produce for restaurants, groceries, and even tenants. It is considered the Vancouver Club’s kitchen to reduce food transportation and other costs to make their dishes more sustainable. Dense cities have the ability to provide food to  a large number of people with the use of rooftop gardens.

9. Luxurious Living

This classy rooftop is the perfect place to hang out with friends and party on with the city in the background. Possibly taking cues from upscale clubs and outdoor venues, the rooftop utilizes a neutral and sleek color palette and simple plants to highlight the backdrop of the city and provide  and provide a high-end scene for entertaining. The glass rails seem to disappear, turning the rooftop into an elevated stage above the urban surroundings. While the overall tone of the space conveys luxury and expense, natural elements such as the plants and use of wood also recognize the outdoor atmosphere. A simple bar cart and some music is all this rooftop needs to get the party started.

8. Mobile Rooftop

Who said rooftops were only limited to buildings? Bus Roots is a green roof system designed for buses by Marco Castro Cosio. This garden on top of a city bus is certainly a unique place to grow plants – while pedestrians on the street won’t be able to enjoy the greenery, the thousands of people in the city who live or work in high-rise buildings will be able to view the buses’ plant beds from above!

7. Multi-Level Lawn

This home features multi-tiered green roofs, providing multiple lawns for the family to use (and yes, mow). From each window in the house, the family can look out at an expanse of greenery. The linear and curved roof lines blend into the surrounding natural ground to as to not disrupt the scenery of the gardens and the beach beyond. The overlapping levels of each roof provide shade to the levels below and assist in keeping the house cool in this warm climate.

6. The People’s Garden

In 2001, mayor Richard M. Daley and architect William McDonough worked together for the implementation of this rooftop garden on top of Chicago’s City Hall. In Chicago, smog, hot weather, and small widespread parks meant that the city was in need of more green spaces. The garden provides a more public outdoor space for the employees and visitors inside. While important decisions may be made inside this state building, city officials can come out to the rooftop for some enjoy some quality alone time or to find nature within the city. As sustainable building features become more important to government entities and businesses, it is likely that we will see rooftop gardens sprouting on underutilized urban buildings.

5.Sustainable Living Roof

The Burnley Living Roof was designed with sustainability in mind by HASSELL, working with the University of Melbourne (Australia) – Burnley Campus. This rooftop garden features edible plants and focuses on improving the overall environment within this urban setting. Its designers focused on ways they could revive an underutilized space and create a space for both harvesting and enjoying nature. The space provides an outdoor learning center for classrooms and a place for students to retreat to.

4. House in the Hills

This rooftop garden uses its natural surroundings to create a surface that melds the hillside with man-made roof. The RD House utilizes the hillside as a sort of natural insulation for the structure, thus minimizing the impact of the house on the surrounding environment. The phenomenon of “thermal inertia” utilizes the rock of the earth to naturally cool the interior and keep it at a constant temperature. Upper-level windows provide views out to the roof’s lawn while playful cutouts in the roof let sunlight filter into the lower patio. The house is not only sustainable, but high-tech too. The design team implemented “Domotics,” a system that integrates controls for lighting, security, heating/cooling and even the hot tub, allowing for reduced energy savings and a simplified way of regulating the home’s features.

3. Tropical Rooftop Escape

This Singaporean home  was designed by Aamer Architects. The home’s design reflects the owner’s gardening hobby and appreciation of nature with its vertical gardens, lush vegetation, and swimming pool. The home minimizes the line between indoor and outdoor space by providing views to the garden from each room, while the rooftop garden provides views to the surrounding villas. This rooftop garden reflects its setting with more tropical plants and familiar trellises. Natural wood and stone reflect the outdoor environment, while the modern uses of these materials and their polished finishes provide a luxurious atmosphere for the family.

2. Green Cascade

Located in Fukuoka City, Japan, ACROS Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall is a center of over one million square feet of multipurpose space. Retail, conference, and office space is covered by an even greater green surface. Vibrant, green “steps” of the terraced structure spill out onto a flat front lawn, providing an expansive amount of green space within a crowded city. The highly visible expanse of greenery provides a break from the gray within this concrete jungle and a place for the building’s and the city’s users to enjoy.

1. Rooftop Retail

Namba Parks is an expansive retail and office center in Osaka, Japan that completely reinvents the idea of what a shopping mall should look like. Utilizing the footprint of the demolished Osaka baseball stadium, the 2003 development by the Jerde Partnership features eight levels of rooftop garden that cover several city blocks. The spaces emulate natural features such as tree groves. rock clusters, cliffs and canyons, lawns, streams, waterfalls, and ponds. These natural areas provide spaces for growing vegetables or simply a place for the mall’s patrons to enjoy.