Productive Urban Landscapes

Research and practice around the CPUL design concept

A wheat field can be seen behind a trees. (Source: On the Grid, 2022)

Herzberge Landscape Park, Germany

Herzberge Landscape Park in Berlin replaces a former 100 hectare industrial space. What used to be a railyard and stadium is now orchards, paddocks and livestock.  From 2003 the site has been redeveloped into urban agricultural lands and park lands. Sheep have been grazing the paddocks on a rotation system since 2009 and they’re one…

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Entrance to market area with peoplpe walking around. (Source: Odlande stadsbasarer www 2022)

Högdalen Farm, Sweden

In the southern suburb of Högdalen, Stockholm beneath a shopping centre, you can find a high-technology farming space. Fresh herbs and lettuce are being grown in this underground farm as part of the innovation project Odlande stadsbasarer (Growing City Bazaars). Connected through the vision of a sustainable, employment-creating urban development cities, organizations and companies work…

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A bridge connects to the city over a very large park area. (Source: Arena Zone Hotel 2022)

Jardín del Turia, Spain

The Jardín del Turia in Valencia is a park created on the old riverbed of the Turia River after the city diverted it’s path to prevent flooding. In 1957 the river flooded ¾ of the city, causing severe damage and 60 deaths, and so a plan was conceived to prevent future flood damage and ensure…

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Members checking on their produce. (Source: Self-sustainability, 2022)

Little Donkey Farm, China

With the development of urbanisation and industrialisation in China, rural land is occupied for commercial values, and people living in the cities are isolated from fresh agricultural products. Meanwhile, because of the abuse of chemical inputs, food security problems are becoming more evident. Building a sustainable food system with social-economic value seems to be more…

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Image: Ahuntsic rooftop greenhouse amongst other buildings. (source: Seeds of Good Anthropocenes, 2022)

Lufa Farms, Canada

In 2011 Lufa Farms built the worlds first commercial rooftop greenhouse to the scale of nine and a half thousand square meters. Since then they have completed 3 more, building on top of industrial buildings in Montreal, Quebec. Their aim is to take advantage of existing spaces to create sustainable, low energy and year-round-harvesting greenhouses…

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Madeira Terrace Urban Farm, UK

As a first year architecture student at the University of Brighton, I finished the module ‘Design, technology and architectural practises’ in June. The module required students to design a building which would operate an urban farm in Brighton. The existing site is the grade 2 listed historical Victorian Madeira Terrace along Brighton seafront. The crop…

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Aerial photo showing expanse of the symbiotic landscape (source: Zhejiang China 2022)

The Mulberry Dike Fish Pond System, China

One of the food production systems we explored recently is the Mulberry Dike Fish Pond System. Being a productive agricultural landscape in its own right, Dong Chu suggested to revisit it as part of a potential Productive Urban Landscape. In 2017, the Mulberry Dike Fish Pond System in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, was identified by the…

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The architects' vision of the park show the multiple functions productive urban landscapes can have. (source: VWA 2022)
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Parc Agro-Urbain Bernex, Switzerland

In 2013, the state of Geneva opened an international competition with an open program brief. The competition asked for proposals that aimed to encourage interaction between the urban population and the agricultural industry, to offer a new ‘vision of the relationship between city and the farmed territory’ and to be a model of a response…

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Image of footpath through a space with garden beds either side. (Source: Jasmine Cook 2022)

Preston Park Demonstration Garden, UK

The Preston Park Demonstration Garden is run by the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership and maintained by a team of local volunteers. The garden is situated on the south-eastern edge of Preston Park, Brighton & Hove’s largest urban park. Brighton and Hove Food Partnership is a non-profit organisation which works with local businesses, other local…

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People harvesting at a Prinzessinnengarten site amongst the city’s buildings. (Source: DW, 2022)

Prinzessinnengarten Berlin, Germany

Launched by Nomadisch Grün (Nomadic Green) in 2009, Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv Berlin is a project transforming wasted open spaces within Berlin into productive nomadic gardens. All plants are grown in transportable vessels such as potato sacks or milk crates meaning if ever any of the spaces are reclaimed for other purposes the garden can simply be…

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Image: Productive landscape when implemented on the existing space (source: Pia Kante, Katja Mali & Vid Bogovič www 2019)

Productive Dynamic Landscapes, Slovenia

Master’s in Landscape Architecture students Pia Kante, Katja Mali and Vid Bogovič from the University of Ljubljana have been developing a design proposal which they call Productive Dynamic Landscapes. Their concept addresses the issue of how to work with urban sprawl in ways that can overcome current reliance on a culture determined by car use and…

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Turin in Italy aims to use regenerated soil for urban forestry and public green spaces throughout the city. (source: proGIreg www 2022)

Productive Green Infrastructure, Europe

The international project Productive Green Infrastructure for post-industrial urban regeneration (proGIreg) was founded under the umbrella of European Union’s Horizon 2020 innovation action programme and runs until 2023. Just like the CPUL concept, the proGIreg project aims to implement green infrastructure into urban spaces – with less focus on food-producing sites but on the renewal of post-industrial districts. In four front-runner…

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People stand on hte ground level and on a suspension bridge in a green landscape.

Productive urban landscapes, Peru

Over the past 50 years, the city of Lima has undergone a process of rapid urbanisation that has seen millions of people migrating from rural areas to the capital. Widespread urbanisation has deprived the city of much of its natural land, crucial for both agriculture, the environment, and citizen’s wellbeing. This devastating effect is now…

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Valley with rice paddies in the foreground and mountains in the background. (source: National Agricultural Exhibition Centre & China Agricultural Museum 2019)

Rice-fish aquaculture systems, China

The symbiotic rice-fish aquaculture system is an agriculture landscape in Qingtian County, Longxian Village, Zhejiang Province, China, which was listed by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations ) among the first five globally important agricultural heritage systems (GIAHS) in 2005. The rice-fish farming, which could be traced back to 1200 years…

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Masterplan of Shenyang Architectural University showing the position of the rice fields (source: Turenscape Landscape Architecture 2022)
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Rice Field Campus, China

As to a country with 1.3 billion people, both food production and sustainable landscape design are vital to every Chinese landscape designer. The Shenyang Architectural University is situated in the North China Liaoning Province with 80 hectares suburban campus. The 3-hectare project is situated in the campus’ southwest. It was been awarded the Design Honor…

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A collaged image shows people tending to agricultural fields in an urban environment. (Source: R-URBAN, 2022)

R-URBAN, France

R-URBAN is a strategy with the hopes to operate throughout cities across Europe to ‘explore alternative to the current models of living, producing and consuming in cities, suburbs and rural areas’. Relying on the active involvement of the citizen, the strategy introduces networks which allow facilities in economy, housing, urban agriculture and culture to be…

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Image: Aerial shot of Houtan Park (source: Turenscape 2022)

Shanghai Houtan Park, China

Turenscape landscape architects lead the renewal project of the Houtan Park’s Huangpu riverfront. Shanghai Houtan Park was built on a brownfield site in 2010. It is a regenerative landscape on Shanghai Huangpu river bank and won the ASLA professional awards. Its urban agriculture, ecological flood control and wetland water purification components are working as an integral…

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Illustrated map showing the area of Southeast False Creek. (Source: City of Vancouver, 2022)

South-East False Creek, Canada

The Southeast False Creek neighbourhood of Vancouver is one of the last remaining brownfield waterfront development sites in the city. Taking up 80 acres and being developed to become home to 16,000 people, this neighbourhood development models how cities can incorporate urban agriculture in high-density, high-rise development areas. The urban agriculture strategy for Southeast False…

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Map of the South-East London Green Chain (Source: Gov.Co.Uk, 2022)

The South-East London Green Chain, UK

The South-East London Green Chain was created in 1977 by the Greater London Council and four London boroughs – Bexley, Bromley, Lewisham and Royal Greenwich in order to protect the green areas from inappropriate building. Today it includes a fifth borough – Southwick – and links over 300 open spaces. The spaces are a combination…

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Cyclists on their way through a wheat field, the city can be seen in the background (source: With Locals 2022)

South Milan Agricultural Park, Italy

The South Milan Agricultural Park is made up of 47,000 hectares of land including agricultural and forested areas, rivers and historic estates. It sits along the peri-urban belt of South Milan. The main activities undertaken throughout are agricultural and include the management of silvicultural resources, crop production, livestock breeding, and the ‘transformation and management of…

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