Productive Urban Landscapes

Research and practice around the CPUL design concept

Image: The Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA) has recently embarked on an ambitious productive urban landscape project on its own site. (source: IUA www 2022)

DCZ Forum provides Sino-German Exchange in agricultural sciences

On the 13th of December 2022 the 4th Exchange Forum on Sino-German Collaboration in Agricultural Sciences took place online. The Sino-German Agricultural Centre [Deutsch-Chinesisches Agrarzentrum] had invited several experts to discuss the potentials of collaboration projects between China’s Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA) and German research institutions. The Sino-German Agricultural Centre [Deutsch-Chinesisches Agrarzentrum], located in…

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CPUL research in China

Research on Urban Productive Landscape Practices, Wang, K., Wang, Z. and Wang, Z. (2014) Based on the urban landscape situation in China, the article puts forward bringing food planting back to people’s daily life. It focuses on productive urban landscapes (here translated as ‘urban productive landscape’), which reflects agricultural production, current urban lifestyles, environmental quality. After…

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卡特林·波尔: 设计可持续的生产性景观是一项复杂的任务 Designing productive urban landscapes is a complex task

When researching the academic impact in China about the productive urban landscape concept by Katrin and André, I was lucky to find this interview from 2010. Despite nine years having passed, their wisdom in the relevent field is still active, we still could recognise the influence in some of the theses published today in China….

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The increasing number of exhibitions about urban agriculture and CPUL hosted by arts and architecture institutions and galleries indicates how these subjects are entering the international architectural and urban design discourse. (source: Bohn&Viljoen 2009, as used in the article)

连贯式生产性城市景观 (CPUL): 关键基础设施的设计 Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL): Designing essential infrastructure

During my research, I came across this article written by Katrin and André published in 2010 by one of the best landscape magazines in China – Landscape Architecture China (LAC) (now renamed as LAF) -, which most Chinese architects, landscape designers and city planners subscribe to. The main idea of this paper has been a…

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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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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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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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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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