Rachel Forbes Temporary Farm

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Temporary and Mobile Urban Agriculturey Rachl Forbes

703 Green Places 02 - January 2014


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Introduction to urban agriculturegrowing trends - changing cities/urban landscape

Urban agriculture can be dened as the growing ofvegetables and fruit, and the raising of livestock in urbanand peri-urban areas. In recent years the resurging interestin city food growing has been attributed to rising foodcosts, increasing food miles and associated environmentaland climate change issues. Many city growing projectsalso arise from the limited access of city dwellers to greenspace, a growing trend, which often manifests itself inlocal residents taking the initiative and turning unusedspaces and stalled development land into allotments andcommunity gardens. The increasing number of suchprojects reects a need, not only to reconnect people withfood systems, but also to meet wider social and economic

needs within city communities.

A rising world population, and in particular urbanpopulation, coupled with a growing dependence onfood imports and the challenge of climate change, willrequire urban planners and associated professionals toincorporate the creation of more resilient food systems intourban policy with the aim of producing local and regionalfood, and at the same time providing high quality greenspaces within urban areas. Urban planners are startingto explore a more ecological approach to city planningand to consider the role of urban agriculture as part of amore holistic approach to managing urban ecosystems.Landscape architects have a key role to play in the designprocess, considering possible ways to integrate agriculture

into the design of the urban landscape.

This study looks at the growing trend towards urbanagriculture in cities in developed countries and focuseson case studies in Northern Europe, USA and Canada. Itexplores the design of temporary urban farms and foodgrowing installations with the aim of incorporating someof these ideas and methods into the design of a temporaryurban farm for Leeds as part of the Leeds Edible CampusProject.

temporary

interim

We will see the trend for urban agriculture andhorticulture intensify. A new generation - mostaged 35 and under - see gardens as opportunities

for community action. A new breed of designer isworking in this spirit on projects such as the UrbanPhysic Garden, FARM and the Edible Bus Stop

(Tim Richardson 2012)


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Health Access to fresh, nutrient rich foodExerciseWellbeing

Food growing projects offer city dwellers theopportunity to work outside, access fresh fruit andvegetables and to connect with the weather andchanging seasons

Social Community cohesionEducationEmpowermentIntegration

Projects often give residents the opportunity to getinvolved in the planning process and to inuencethe outcome. They provide spaces for communityinteraction. Better understanding of the issuessurrounding food production and more control overfood supply

Economic Food availabilityJob creationStimulating local economic activity

They help supplement poor diets with fresh food.Produce is often donated to food banks and citycharities. Opportunities for acquiring new skills andpossible employment

Ecological Management of habitatsBiodiversity

ConservationWater managementFood systems ecology

Raising awareness of environmental issues. Urbangreening. Looking at integrated cycles and systems.

Recyling food and green waste - composting and soilimprovement within the city.

Why grow food in cities?


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Why temporary?

Why mobile?

Make use of empty landQuick win

ExperimentationPioneer ideas

Overcome complex planningissuesEasy relocationFlexibleAdaptableContainers can be placed oncontaminated land


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Leeds Edible Campus and Food Growing in Leeds

The Leeds Edible Campus Project draws together anumber of existing food growing ventures based aroundthe Universities, Woodhouse Moor public park and theCity Centre of Leeds. The aim was to create an ediblecorridor incorporating a variety of projects and to exploreideas and designs for incorporating edible plants into thecity landscape to create aesthetically pleasing, productiveplanting.

Taking inspiration from the Incredible Edible project,Leeds Edible Campus considers ways to encourage moreproductive planting in public spaces. The projects involvesacademic staff and students from both universities andcontributes to some of the teaching programmes.

TRUG is the academic forum for research and educationinto sustainable city development and related issues.At the heart of TRUG is the concept of urbalism anexpression coined by Tom Bliss to try and reversetraditional thinking regarding the relationship betweencities and their surrounding countryside. The Urbal Mapis an online interactive map pinpointing current projects,collating data and allowing users to view the wider pictureby examining spatial connections and environmental,

economic and social factors.

The project aims to be transdisciplinary taking in thebroader spectrum of issues relating to food growing inthe city, relationships with rural areas, pollution andcontamination, and horticultural practice.

Feeds Leeds was established by Leeds City Council asan independent initiative to promote sustainable localfood and bring together a number of organisations andindividuals with similar interests to create a forum of localfood growers, building relationships between existingprojects, offering support and advice, and exploring newpossibilities for a more strategic framework.

Feed Leeds joined the Incredible Edible Movement in 2013and incorporates many partner organisations includingthe Leeds Edible Schools Sustainability Network and nowthe Leeds Edible Campus. Its role is mainly to operateat a strategic level and develop policy advice, allowingpartner organisations to develop their own projects.

The combined aim of all the different projects andorganisations is essentially to develop and supportlocal food growing and consumption in Leeds, and toresearch and promote the signicant economic, social,environmental and health benets they potentially bringto the city.


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Case Studies


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Langrab city Shenzhen HongKong Biennale Of Architecture/Urbanism 2010

Joseph Grima, Jeffrey Johnson and Jose Esparza

Temporary farm installation to demonstrate an idea

This is not an urban agriculture project, but an installationhighlighting the issues surrounding agriculture and thepressure placed on food growing systems by increasingurban populations. Located in a busy shopping district inthe city of Shenzhen, Hong Kong, the installation aims toinvestigate Shenzhens spatial footprint. It is divided intotwo parts the rst is a map of one of the citys denselypopulated areas, home to about 4.5 million people andthe second is a cultivated plot, which represents (at thesame scale as the map) the amount of land required toprovide food for these inhabitants, projected to 2027,when China is expected to take over the USA as theworlds leading economy. The growing plot is subdividedinto single food groups showing the extent of each groupsfootprint including vegetables and fruit, cereals, pasturefor livestock etc.

In reality the agricultural land is spread out across Chinaand over several continents. Since 2008 fears about

rising food prices, and an unstable global economy haveled highly urbanized regions of the world to buy vasttracts of land in distant continents as an insurance policyagainst food shortages. Chinese enterprises are nowscrambling to purchase or lease vast areas of pasture andarable land in countries like Argentina, Brazil and Kenya.These territories simply become satellites serving urbandistricts in far off countries, where any produce harvestedis shipped immediately. The Landgrab City installationattempts to expose this complexity in world agricultureresulting from rapid urbanization, and redenes thespatial boundaries of our cities. The paradox is that someof hungriest countries of the world, those who frequentlyrequire food aid, are letting their most fertile land to feedthe wealthiest.

It is included in this study because it highlights the issuessurrounding food production and reinforces the need toaddress the issues of food security and environmentalsustainability. Introducing urban agriculture into ourcities even as a temporary installation helps to spark thedebate and raise awareness. It differs from the othercase studies in that it does not invite people to engage infood growing activity (although local families were invitedto harvest some of the produce) but stands alone ratherlike a piece of thought-provoking public art.

Hassell is an interdisciplinary design practice architecture,interior design, landscape architecture and planning. As

part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival the designerstook inspiration from Guatemalan farms to create aninstallation that aimed to bring the story of coffee growingalive, and encourage people to think about the productionprocess. The design took advantage of existing steps andan amphitheatre structure to create seating and plantingareas. 125 coffee plants came from a disused plantation inNew South Wales and an added 2000 tropical plants wereloaned from a nursery to give the space a jungle feel.The 1500 pallets used to build the farm were returned totheir owner. Posters and information boards about coffeegrowing were provided to educate the public about theorigins of coffee, as well as presentations and workshops.Shipping containers were used to create a caf and forstorage. As well as informing people about coffee, the

farm brought life to an underused area of the Southbank.

Urban Coffee Farm - Melbourne 2013 Hassell


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Valley of the Sunflowers Brixton Beer

making a statement

Valley of the sunowers was the result of a collaborativeeffort in Pheonix, Arizona, that involved the transformationof a vacant lot into a 2 acre eld of sunowers, with theaim of beautifying an unused public space and to enablestudents of the local Bioscience High School to harvestthe seed at the end of the season to produce biodiesel asa learning exercise. Students and volunteers helped toprepare the land, plant and harvest. Various communitypartnerships contributed to the project including theRoosevelt Row Community Development Corporation wholeased the land from the city and Intel who provided grantsamounting to $22,000. The land was located adjacent toa thriving community garden and grow house, and it waspeoples frequent reaction to the owers growing therethat helped inspire the sunower theme - seeing a eld ofowers is uplifting.

While the students accept that the biodiesel producedon this small scale will not offer a solution for energyproduction, they hope that it will start a conversationabout how our energy future might look. The project

also highlighted some of the complex issues surroundingland ownership and liability restrictions which hinder thetemporary use of vacant land. The Valley of the Sunowersillustrates a low-cost revitalisation of empty space, whilebringing different community groups together and havinga positive impact on the city environment.

The Brixton beer project involved encouraging individualmembers of the community in South London to grow hopsin their gardens, backyards or allotments, which are thenharvested and collected together and used to avour beerin local micro breweries. The scheme was so popular thatmany similar schemes are springing up in other parts ofLondon and in Cardiff. The idea emerged at the AGM ofIncredible Edible Lambeth inspired by the Brockwell Bakewhere people grow wheat on allotments to make theirown bread. Hop packs were sold for 20 and instructionalvideos were made with how to grow advice. The aimwas to raise awareness of the distance hops travel - theBritish beer industry imports hops from as far aeld asNew Zealand, but accepts that this sort of growing willnot meet the needs of the industry as a whole. At onetime hops were grown widely across the UK but now theyare only grown in Herefordshire and Kent. They are wellsuited to growing in urban environments as they growvertically so can be cultivated in backyards or connedspaces. Single crops can be prone to mildew and aphidproblems so growing in a dispersed way helps to overcome

these issues.


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Dalston Mill 2009 - Exyzt/Barbican Radical NatureExhibition

The Dalston our mill was part of the Barbican Art Galleryexhibition Radical Nature Art and Architecture for aChanging Planet 1969-2009 constructed off-site on anarea of disused railway line and waste ground in the EastLondon. The exhibit consisted of a temporary 16 metre

high working our mill with a community kitchen andbread oven. An adjoining 20 metre long wheateld wasplanted to recreate Agnes Denes 1982 Wheateld AConfrontation planted in New York. Alongside the workingmill a series of public programmes and events took place,including theatrical performances, baking classes, urbansustainability talks and workshops, artist talks and a bike-powered cinema.

The aim of the project was to activate a disused publicspace, and reconnect local residents in an area experiencingsignicant change and upheaval due to the developmentof the Olympic park.

The mill was built from reusable or recycled materials

- scaffolding, and timber, much of which was hired andreturned after the exhibition. A windmill powered thegrain-grinder and bike powered generators were used forlm-screenings and music in the evenings. Over the threeweek period 17,000 visited the site during the Thursday toSunday opening times. The project benetted directly fromits involvement with the larger exhibition at the Barbican,but also drew many visitors from the local community. Thesuccess of the project led to the construction of a barnon the same site - now part of the Dalston Eastern CurveGarden - also lead by Exyzt. These projects have playeda signicant role in engaging the local community in thefuture development of public spaces potentially affectedby wider regeneration programmes.

Grow-Up London - pop-upinstallation

Vertical growing in the greenhouse increases densityat which salad crops can be grown. With a footprint ofonly 14 square meters, it is hoped the GrowUp Box willproduce around 60kg of sh and 200kg of salad eachyear.

Fresh herbs and salds are fed by nutrients in the watercirculated from the sh tanks, and in turn help purify thewater.

Tilapia sh are grown in the sh tanks at an appropriatedensity to ensure that they stay healthy

London-based GrowUp set up a small pop-up farm as atemporary installation for the summer of 2013, launchedas part of this years Chelsea Fringe Festival . The boxproduced salad, greens and herbs, and fresh sh usingvertical gardening and aquaponics. The project successfullyraised over 16,000 through a Kickstarter campaignto construct the GrowUp Box from a reused shippingcontainer, modied to include a rooftop greenhouse.Agnes Dean Wheateld New York

Dalston Flour Mill

single crop


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Victory Gardens - San Francisco 2008

Rebar/Slow Food Nation & Victory Garden 08+

Rebar is an interdisciplinary studio of landscape architects,urban planners and artists whose work often involveschallenging our perception of public space through theuse of temporary or modular installations.

In the summer of 2008 Rebar, in collaboration with anumber of organisations, led a group of volunteer urbangardeners in removing the turf from San Franciscos CivicCenter Plaza and replaced it with a temporary Victorygarden. Within a few weeks of transplanting thousandsof seedlings the garden was producing about 100 lbs offood a week which was distributed to a local foodbank.Although the original intention was to move the gardenin September, the mayor requested that it stay untilThanksgiving. The aim of the garden was to challengethe way we think about urban landscapes, in this casetransforming a formal ornamental garden in a high prolelocation (and also the site of a post war victory garden)into a productive one. It also highlighted a lost urban

agriculture tradition in San Francisco.

an interdisciplinary collaboration of artists and designerswho use temporary, often mobile installations to makeinterventions in public space.

The mobile gardens project started in Amsterdam with thesimple idea that residents living in apartments could growtheir own vegetables for a season. The aim was to createa meeting point to bring neighbours together and changethe dynamics of the public space. The gardens relocatedover several seasons including one in Brussels, where theland they chose has an uncertain future. By placing thetemporary garden here they were able to demonstrate itspotential as a green space and how it could be developedin collaboration with local residents.

The strong design element of the temporary structuresmakes them aesthetically pleasing and as they areessentially trailers, they can be towed to the next site.

They work well to create interest and community but theydo have limitations in terms of productivity. The designwould work well for a temporary garden and could beadapted to create a covered greenhouse. They could alsobe placed in densely built areas where space is restricted.

Rebar Park cycle - fun designs to make people thinkabout public space

Mobile Gardens Nether-lands/Brussels 2010-2012

Cascoland

The Victory Garden


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Wayward plants - temporarygardens/installations

Wayward plants is a multidisciplinary practice landscapearchitect-led, that create temporary gardens andinstallations and approach landscape architecture throughthe creation of narrative environments, connecting people

through shared experiences and memories. They havedesigned several pop-up gardens which have been sitedon stalled development land including the Union StreetOrchard, followed by an urban physic garden the followingyear. They worked in collaboration with Dodo in Finlandto build the Plant Tram and were part of a MeanwhileLondon competition entry to create a temporary spacein Canning Town (Caravanserai). Their latest venturewas the creation of temporary allotment gardens onthe Southbank. Their work is constructed by a team ofdesigners and volunteers, usually using reclaimed timberand salvaged materials and plants. The success of theirprojects lies in the strong initial design, with exibility toevolve and adapt for future use on another site, or to be

dismantled but leave a legacy of engagement, experienceand memories. In a time of austerity their work iswelcomed as low-cost, quick win and easy to realise usinglocal sweat-equity.

Designing for information, education and entertainmentQueens Walk Window Allotments 2013

A scaffolding structure creates a stage area and seating forpresentations and workshops - Union Street Urban Physic Garden2011


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Dodo is an environmental organisation that, in responseto a growing need for allotments in Helsinki, started amovement of guerrilla gardening on unused land alongsidethe railway tracks. Although there is a strong tradition inFinland for allotments, new sites are not being establishedand waiting lists are long.The original pilot project in the Pasila district of Helsinkiinvolved a pair of large growing boxes built from old woodencrates. Soil was donated by the local water and sewagecompany. Despite being a fairly low key operation theproject received a lot of media coverage and the projectwas promoted by distributing locally grown vegetables andseedlings at events and festivals under the label Made inPasila. Harvests were good and the growing boxes nowsupply herbs to the Helsinki-based restaurant Juuri andtheir shop Juuren Puoti, which promote food that is locallysourced, organic or wild.

Dodos urban farmers have developed a model growingbox that can be installed outside apartment blocks and inlocal parks, and residents can gradually take over the plotsalongside support and advice from Dodo. In Kalasatama(the Fish Harbour) once the main harbour of Helsinki,design agency Part has developed concepts for temporaryuse and asked Dodo to be a partner. This vast empty spaceis waiting to be developed into a new residential area overthe next fteen years but in the meantime a new urbanfarm has been created using 80 recycled industrial sacks.Carrots, radishes, salad, herbs, strawberries are grownwithin a kilometre of the city centre.

The concept of urban farming is starting to permeateurban thinking and people are looking at city spaces in adifferent way empty spaces are now seen as potentiallyproductive spaces.

Dodos work is recognised for its efforts to create resident-centred, ecologically aware cities. Most public debatearound ecological sustainability in Finland in recent yearshas centred on energy efciency but the urban farmingmovement has widened the debate and encouraged cityauthorities to look at new approaches to urban planning.

Dodo - Helsinki

Turntable greenhouse in a disused railway yard- Helsinki

Helsinki Plant Tram participatory urban gardeningproject- Collaborative design by Wayward Plants and Dodo

Recycledindustrial sacksare used tocreate temporaryallotments in theharbour

temporary pop-up


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Led by architects initially, the Ecobox project was verymuch an experiment in city/urban dynamics not strictlyurban agriculture but using food growing as a means togrow community and empower city dwellers to inuencetheir environment.

Aaa (studio for self-managed architecture) in Francecollaborates with local residents to self-manage projects,through the temporary transformation of disused urbanspaces. The project ECObox was a mobile rhizomaticgarden and food growing venture constructed frompallets and recycled materials, originally located in anarea of indoor and outdoor spaces in a derelict rail yardin northern Paris. Alongside the gardens, mobile modulesprovided a kitchen, toolbox, media equipment and alibrary to encourage collective social activity. The projecthas since moved and those involved negotiated a newlocation. Its structure meant that it could be dismantledand re-installed to ensure the continuity of social networkscreated.

Eco-Urban Network / Ecobox 2001

aaa Aterlier darchitecture autogeree

The simple construction of these gardens and their modularand mobile nature make them highly transferable to othersites. This has been put to the test twice in 2004 and2008, when the group was evicted and relocated to a newsite. The elements of the project were quickly and easilymoved, causing minimal disruption to the continuity ofthe communitys activities.

The Ecobox project interacts with a number of localgroups including schools, artists, cultural centres and

other gardens. It also participates in movements such asTransition Town, Urban Orchards and others, preservingand growing the bio- and cultural diversity of Paris.

While urban agriculture may not be the principle aim ofthis project it does demonstrate a creative use of recycledmaterials to provide a exible growing system that can beinstalled on vacant urban space. It also highlights the roleof architects and landscape architects as enablers. Butwhatever the original thinking behind the project, one ofits outcomes is the production of local food in the city.urban activism


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Prinssessinengarten - Berlin

Prinzessinnengrten is a new urban place of learning. It is where locals can come together toexperiment and discover more about organic food production, biodiversity and climate protection.The space will help them adapt to climate change and learn about healthy eating, sustainable livingand a future-oriented urban lifestyle.

Inspired by the agricultura urbana of Cuba, founders ofthe initiative Nomadisch Grn (Nomadic Green), RobertShaw and Marco Clausen, created Prinzessinnengarten in2009. Helped by about 150 volunteers, they brought tolife a forgotten corner of Berlin, Moritzplatz, hidden in theshadows of the Berlin Wall for half a century. The land wasofcially leased from the local authority. The philosophybehind the project is not just about growing food but isabout a way of urban living the creation of a meetingplace, an exchange of ideas, values and knowledge, anda direct response to the needs of the local community.The founders see this as a pioneer project not simply ameanwhile use of neglected land, but a way to show whatis possible in the city.

The garden is completely mobile. Everything is grown inrice sacks, plastic crates and milk containers so that thewhole garden can be relocated if necessary. There is acaf made from a recycled shipping container selling freshproduce from the garden, a library, a temporary buildingmade from recycled materials for working outdoors, anda shop selling plants and herbs. The garden is organicand every effort is made to grow a diverse range of cropsincluding older and some rare varieties about 500different species of plant are grown. Work in the gardenis a collaborative effort with noone having their ownindividual plot. The social enterprise, which now supports13 staff, is non-forprot, self-funded, relying heavily onthe caf to produce much of its income. The land been

under threat of development and Nomadisch Grn foughtto extend the lease for ve years so that they can providesome security for those now working on the project, andto engage local people in the decision making process,the argument being that in deciding the destiny of publicproperty local people should have some say in the naloutcome. It is feared that many of the open spaces thathave been adopted by people in Berlin and that now givethe city a distinct green character may be lost under apolicy that is only looking at short term prot.If the city does eventually sell the land, the temporary

design of the garden means it will be able to relocate onthe back of a truck. It also means that during the winter,the transportable vegetable plots can be relocated to anold covered market that has been redesigned to serve asa community centre.

Prinssessinnengarten has led the way for similar projectsin Berlin and other cities across Germany and abroad.Shaw and Clausens team also works in cooperation withuniversities to advise on the remodelling of urban gardensand green spaces. In a recent article in Landscape andUrban Planning, Pim Bendt from the Beijer Institute ofEcological Economics along with centre researchersStephan Barthel and Johan Colding, examined the roleof community gardens in Berlin in teaching communities

about the importance of urban ecosystems and theinterdependence between humans and nature. UsingPrinzessinnengarten as one of their case studies, theirresearch led them to conclude that sustainable urbangrowth cannot rely on governments and experts alone,but that active participation and experimentation by localcitizens is essential.

The garden isconstructedfrom recycledcontainers,

sacks andcrates


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Himmelbeet - Berlin

A new garden inspired by Prinzessinnengarten covering12000 square metres on the top of a former multi storey carpark over a shopping centre in Berlin. Structural/building

law issues delayed the start so planting has started on atemporary site nearby. Plots can be leased for a season butmost of the garden will be communal with food grown beingused in the caf. Growing will take place in mobile raisedbeds made from recycled materials. Special emphasis isbeing placed on regional and traditional varieties, organicand incorporating permaculture principles. To kick startthe project miniature seedling incubators have beendistributed at a local market to local residents to nurtureuntil planting out.

This garden highlights the issues of setting up urbanagriculture in cities where land is scarce and valueshigh. By designing for mobility obstacles created byland ownership and complicated planning law can beovercome.

Even as a very temporary garden awaiting removal toits new location, there is a strong designed layout, whichmakes the garden aesthetically pleasing - this temporarygarden waiting to be transferred to the rooftop consistsof about 300 raised beds.


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Initially created as part of Plan, a biennial exhibitionin Cologne, Germany, looking at the interplay betweenarchitecture, the city and the arts, the Obsthain GrnerWeg started out as a temporary orchard and garden ona post industrial site, but with the intention of becominga more permanent xture in a new housing development

and acting as a catalyst to new thinking in planning greenspaces. The urban agriculture project was a collaborationbetween Design Quartier Ehrenfeld DQE and the housingcompany GAG Immobilien AG to create a mobile fruitgarden with different varieties of apples and pears. Itopened in May 2011 and has since developed as a gardenwhere local people raise a variety of plants, in particularrare vegetable and fruit varieties, herbs and bees. Theland is owned by GAG and is to be developed into aresidential estate where many of the trees, currentlygrowing in mobile containers, will eventually be plantedas part of a community garden for the neighbourhood.Development of the project has included a series ofgardening workshops and open garden events including

one with Prinzessinnengarten, and a lecture in productiveurban landscapes with Katrin Bohn (CPULS) andlandscape architect Dirk melzer entitled Ehrenfeld, Wasisst du?, (Ehrenfeld, what are you eating?). In anotherworkshop local residents developed a CPULS style plan

Obsthain Gruner Weg - Ehrenfeld Cologne 2011

Design Quartier Ehrenfeld DQE

Planting the mobile orchard

a green layout with areas of small or more extensiveurban agriculture linked by green routes. The workshopsresulted in the drawing up of models for three projectsin Ehrenfeld - The orchard (Obsthain), and two morecommunity gardens - Neufeld and Panzstelle. It is nowhoped that the new movement of community gardeners

in the neighbourhood will instigate the development ofmore food producing gardens in surrounding areas, andthis will in turn contribute to the development of a linearpark linking the spaces.

Panzstelle

Designing portable planters

Planting plan for the orchardWorkshop to design for CPULS (ContinuousProductive Urban Agriculture) in Ehrenfeld


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Frankfurtergarten

The Frankfurter garden was the result of community

activism to make use of a neglected space in the city.

It demonstrates how an underused area of land can be

transformed for the benefit of the local community. The

garden is built over an area of hard standing, using a strongframework of structures and raised beds. It presents

simple ideas that could be adapted on similar plots of

land in any city with its use of pallets, shipping containers

and a mix of temporary steel and timber fencing. Large

signs with a logo give the garden identity.


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Great Northern WayUrban Orchard

Evergreen

National non-for-prot organisation promoting greenaction in cities. Located on the Great Northern Way Campus

(GNWC), in an area identied in Vancouvers GreenestCity 2020 Action Plan as a hub for green development andinnovation, the Great Northern Way Urban Orchard hastransformed 10,000 square feet of post-industrial landand is designed to be a focus for food security researchand organic agriculture.

The Orchard provides opportunities for investigationinto urban food growing in difcult growing conditions,such as contaminated, compacted soils on concrete-covered landscapes, and gives some insight into futuretrends in urban agriculture. A wide variety of crops aregrown, including apples, nut trees, and soft fruit includingraspberries, strawberries, currants, huckleberries, serviceberries. The crops are grown in large planting boxes,

which means that the orchard can be transported witha forklift truck - an experiment in the viability of mobileurban agriculture.

The Orchard also acts as a community learning spaceoffering workshops, where visitors can learn about bestpractice in organic farming, and also hosts two annualcelebrations - the Spring Planting Celebration and theautumn Heritage Harvest Festival.

The Riverpark Farm at the Alexandria Center for LifeScience was created in 2011 as a temporary portable

urban farm on a stalled development site. It is one ofthe largest farming models in New York and was formedas a partnership between the Riverpark restaurant andthe Alexandria Center. The Farm supplies fresh produceto the restaurant, and is now used as a prime exampleof using an empty development plot to stimulate localinterest and economic activity, as well as benetting theenvironment.

In the autumn of 2012, construction resumed on therst site, but due to the innovative design of the plantingboxes made from recycled milk crates, they were able totransport the produce to a new site in less than 24 hours.It reopened in a new location and continues to grow freshproduce.

The planting boxes were designed with guidance fromORE Technology + Design. The recycled milk crates arelined with a landscape fabric and the compost used isa special lightweight mix. The crates t closely togetherfor the best use of space. Vegetables, herbs, and owersgrown at the Farm are chosen for their ability to thrivewhen planted in double-stacked crates and also forgrowing in an urban environment. There are some 6,000plants some of which were started off at Wilklow Orchardsin the Hudson Valley before being transferred to the farm.The restaurant chefs visit the Farm daily to discuss whichplants are ready to harvest so they can determine themenus for the following day.

Clean food waste from the kitchen is composted and usedto fertilize the Farm throughout the seasons. They alsomulch with cocoa husk to maintain soil moisture andprovide extra nitrogen to tomato plants, and plant winterrye to sustain the Farms soil until the following spring.The farm plays an important role in the local communityhosting farm tours, school visits and planting workshops.However the farm exists for a specic purpose, which isto grow food for the restaurant and this means that unlike

Riverpark Farm, Manhattan, New York City 2011Alexandria Center and Riverpark Restaurant

city farms

Relocating the farm

All plants are grown in crates

most temporary urban farms it is run as a proper businessand although it does not aim to make a prot it has to be

self-supporting.


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Sole Foods - Street Farms

Sole Food Street Farms in Vancouver transformvacant urban land into farms that grow fruit crops andvegetables for distribution to farmers markets, localrestaurants and retail outlets. It is very much a social

enterprise providing meaningful employment within aexible working environment and a supportive networkfor those dealing with issues such as drug addiction ormental illness. It is however a serious farming projectproviding jobs and agricultural skills training, withthe aim of creating an economically viable (thoughnot necessarily protable) model for high quality foodgrowing within a challenging urban environment. Underthe guidance of farmer and author Michael Ableman anetwork of four small production farms has been createdon leased urban plots, the lease normally being thevalue of the property taxes required to pay by the landowner. Produce grown from the farms is processed at acentral location, and then sold to restaurants, at farmers

markets or distributed to community organisations. It isestimated that the farms produce about 60 tons of fooda year.

The main challenge was to develop growing systemsthat isolate the growing medium from unworkable orcontaminated soils and that can be relocated at shortnotice. Like the Evergreen project, the farms use asystem of raised moveable planters that can be stackedon a truck with a forklift and moved. Crops are plantedat the highest density possible to make maximumuse of limited space. Special seeders precision plantseeds close together and planting towers make useof vertical space. Rapid crop successions ensure thatbeds are replanted immediately after the previous

crop has been harvested. Seeds and plant varieties areselected according to quality and taste and many of theseed stock has Mediterranean origins, originating fromareas where the tradition of artisan farming and food isdeeply rooted. Soil for the planting boxes is an organicveggie mix provided by local company Ecosoil, althoughone mid-term vision was the creation of an inner citycomposting facility. High-tech machinery is used to blowthe soil into the boxes, and it is this use of machineryon a more industrial level that distinguishes this projectfrom most small urban growing ventures.

Growing boxes stampedwith the Sole Food logo

Vertical growing systems


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Resource Centre - City Farm Chicago

Resource Center Ken Dunn

Beyond the community gardening movement, a handful of professional farmers like Ken Dunn havetapped into an even more compelling possibility: the idea that unused urban land can generate jobsand serious quantities of food. These farmers are challenging the common misconception that foodmust be grown far from where most people live. Instead, every neighbourhood in every city could have

its own farm with orchards and greenhouses and a public market. These could become the new townsquares, balancing the hardscape of buildings and pavements with fer tile soil, lush plantings, and freshfoods. Local residents could take part during their breaks from work or at the end of the day. Therecould be classes and workshops on cooking and growing, as well as celebratory meals making use ofthe farms yield. In this scenario, urban citizens might expand their denition of honourable work toinclude farmers, who, instead of labouring on the distant margins, are welcomed into the fabric of theurban tapestry.

The city farm project in Chicago turns vacant lots intoproductive farmland. 1,000s of tons of compost arelaid over a sealed layer of clay and woodchip to createurban farms. The farms are frequently relocatedoften requiring up to sixty truckloads to move the soil.Ken Dun who founded the Resource Center acceptsthis nomadic lifestyle an acknowledgement thaturban planning and development is predominantly

about buildings. This demonstrates a system ofurban agriculture that has adapted to survive in thecity. It accepts the idea that cities are in constantux and presents a dilemma for landscape architectsand planners - that designing for permanent urbanfood growing while land values are so high is perhapsunrealistic. It is however possible to develop a systemwhereby meanwhile spaces can be given over to foodproduction using soil and compost generated from withinthe city and these farms gradually establish to play amore permanent role in urban life despite their mobility.

(Michael Ableman Fields of Plenty)


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Case Study Designed by Aim Location Planting Design/layout Key features Funding Legacy

Art

Landgrab Architect Installation to raiseawareness

Shopping precinct Crops planted inexisting soil in theground crops

Illustrative map andinformation aboutthe project

Commissioned by the Shenzhen/Hong KongBiennale of Architecture/Urbanism

One-off installation sparked debate about effectsof urban growth, spatial boundaries.Highlights just how much land required to producefood could be demoralising for those engaged inurban agriculture projects

Singlecrop

Urban CoffeeFarm

Interdisciplinary DesignPractice

Installation to raiseawareness/educational

Public Square Plants in pots ontemporary loansupported by palletstructures

Strong layout usingexisting hard landscapingand topography to mimic amountain slope. Stackedpallets create plantingpockets and enclosedspaces

Shipping containerstorage and cafInformation posters

Partnership with the Melbourne Food andWine Festival presented by Bank of Melbourne

Entertainment as part of food festival engagedpublic over short period of time abo ut wider issuesof food production. Reinvigorated an underusedpublic space

Valley of thesunflowers

Collaborative EducationalMeanwhile use ofdevelopment land

Vacant lot Sunflower seedssown in the ground

Using a single plant had ahigh visual impact transformed the plot

Total of $22,000 through two grants from theIntel Foundation, the companys charitableorganization for community development

Valuable educational project. Highlighted theissue of empty plots/ownershipProject was temporary but could be relocated.Community involvement encouraged people toget involved. Despite funding project isdependent on ongoing volunteer support

Brixton Beer Local community Communityengagement andeducation

Dispersed acrossmany sites

Hops grown inbackyards, gardenscommunity allotmentsetc.

Community eventsand harvestingMap showing hopgrowing locationsHop growing kitsand plants to buy

CommunitySupport from local breweriesSale of hop plants and growing kits

Growing support for local microbreweries. Peoplebecome engaged in the production process andmore aware of what is involved. Communitycohesion.

Dalston Mill Architect/multidisciplinary

Raise awarenessCommunityengagementPart of art exhibition

Stalleddevelopment land

Wheat planted inground

Mill structure strongvisual impact

Working mill withbread ovensToiletCaf

WorkshopsEvening events

Funders / Commissioners: Commissioner the Barbican Art Gallery with support of ArtsCouncil England, RSA Action and ResearchCentre (Arts & Ecology), London Borough of

Hackney.Cost: 45,000

Forerunner to Dalston Eastern Curve gardenActivated development landHighlighted need for community involvement inarea of ongoing change and development

upheaval.

Temporarypop-up

Rebar VictoryGardens

Interdisciplinary designpractice -landscapearchitect led.Collaboration withenvironmental, food andfarming organisationsand volunteers

Temporary installationto highlight food justiceand urban agricultureissues. Rethinking useof urban open space interms of productivelandscape

Public Plaza Raised beds madefrom sandbags andfilled with donatedsoil. Planted withseedlings

Ordered pattern of raisedbeds in high profile publicspace high impact

Partnership - City Slicker Farms, Slow FoodNation and Garden for the Environment. Partof a wider project by Future Farmersprogramme Victory Garden 2008+Combination of local government, private andpublic City of San Francisco, FeishhackerFoundation and SF MOMA ($155,000)

Food donated to local food banks. Success ofproject meant that it was allowed to extend timeperiod to include thanksgiving. Most of the othergardens established as part of the widerprogramme are still running and the scheme isregarded as sustainable in the long term.

Grow-Up Individuals withexperience in ecologyand aquaponic farmingsystems

Temporary installationto promote an idea part of Chelsea FringeFestival. Experimental

Public Square Closed aquaponicsystem

Strong design usingshipping containers modular set up designed tobe replicated. Logo

Caf area outside Kickstarter crowdfunding raised 16,467online

Aim that idea will be taken on as form of urbanfood growing in small spaces

Mobilegardens

Interdisciplinary designpractice

Temporary, mobileinstallation changedlocation over threeyears. Aim activate

local residents to havea say in localplanning/green spaces

Public space inresidential areas

Plants in pots slot intoframework

Portable steel structureson trailer for mobility. Self-contained units aesthetically pleasing and

functional

Mobile kitchens Private sponsors Adapted use website shows images of trailers inwinter lined with straw. Encouraged localresidents to consider the design of thesurrounding green space and to experiment with

food growing.

WaywardPlants Popup gardens

Landscape architects/multidisciplinary

Temporary,experimental gardensoften as part of afestival or event

Stalleddevelopmentland/public spaces

Raised beds/portablestructures usingrecycled materials

Strong layout and design often incorporate verticalplanting as artwork. Cleveruse of structures andexisting boundaries

Gardens ofteninclude seating,caf, compost toilet.Host events,workshops

Private sponsorship and public funding Some designs have been transferred to morepermanent homes. Memories and experiences.Community engagement. Experimenting withideas that might be absorbed into the urbanframework.

Dodo Environmentalorganisation

Temporary installationsand food growingspaces

Stalleddevelopment land/postindustrialland/public spaces

Portable pallet boxes,sacks. Soil from localsewage works

Main structures oftenstrong design, aestheticallypleasing.

Caf, greenhouse Private sponsorship and public funding Inspiring planners to think about more sustainableways of providing transport, energy and food.Public debate. Local food production


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Case Study Designed by Aim Location Planting Design/layout Key features Funding Legacy

Urbanactivism

Ecobox Aaa interdisciplinarynetwork of architects,artists, researchers andactivists

Self-management ofurban spaces. Catalystfor longer term projects.Transforming underused urban spaces

Underused land Pallets createstructural layout. Soiland planting inbetween pallet paths

Flexible adaptable layout Modular system ofunits for cooking,storage, library

Budget: 65.000 / during 5 years (local,national and EU funding)voluntary work value: 100.000/ during 5 yearsPublicly funded research

Projects taken over by local community. Ecoboxhas successfully relocated several times. Ecoboxhas developed from a temporary urban garden toa platform for urban criticism

Prinzessinnen-garten

Film maker andphotographer urbanactivists

Community gardensand food growingprojects aim that foodgrowing will becomepart of city greening.

Improving communitycohesion

Derelict land Recycled containersand pallet boxes importedsoil/compost.Shipping containers

Enclosed sites withprotective boundaries.Designed layout of boxesto create order. Oftenintegrated seating and

open spaces forcommunity gatherings

Storage, caf,eating areas, shop,workshops,lectures, education,library

Funded by donations and sales from shop.Crowdfunding initiative set up to try and securemore funding Let It Grow campaign raisednearly 25,000

Garden works to a five year plan. Continualcampaign for extended lease. Garden hasbecome important part of city life and for localcommunity. Has inspired many similar projects inGermany and further afield.

Himmelbeet Local community Community foodgrowing

Roof top car park Mix of private sponsorship and public funding Land ownership issues mean that project hasstarted on another temporary site.

Obsthain Design InitiativeLandscape architectinvolvement

Design festivalUrban greening project

Development land DQE mix of private sponsors and public andEuropean funding

Creating a local community of urbangardeners/growers. Giving people some say inthe green planning of their neighbourhood.Absorption of trees from temporary garden intonew housing development

Frankfurter-garten

Local community Community foodgrowing. Reactivatingneglected public space

Underused carparking area

Some private sponsorship ongoing searchfor more funding

New project

Northern Way Environmental ActionGroup

Community Orchard Post -industrialland/Underused publicspace

Pallet boxes andreclaimed car tyres

Functional Mix of private and public funding through non-for-profit organisation Evergreen

Has successfully revitalized area. Hosts events,workshops and courses. Research into urbanagriculture, pollution and growing in urbanenvironments.

CityFarms

Riverpark Local restaurant and

Alexandria Center forLife Science

Food growing to supply

local restaurant

Development land Recycled milk crates,

lined and filled withlightweight compostmix. Generatecompost from kitchenwaste and coffeegrounds

Very ordered layout,

unified by only using milkcrates stacked in differentarrangements

Greenhouse, urban

agricultureworkshops

Run as a self-supporting business but with

extra support from GrowNYC, a non-profitfocused on improving New York City's qualityof life through environmental programs, greenmarkets, community gardens and educationinitiatives such as Learn It, Grow It, Eat It(LGE) and the School Garden Initiative. Therestaurant also works with the Fresh Air Fund(FAF), a not-for-profit agency that providesfree summer experiences in the country toNew York City children from disadvantagedcommunities, as part of a summer internshipprogramme involving Riverpark and the Farm.

Project has successfully relocated. Alongside

supplying the restaurant the farm runs coursesand workshops, and plays an importanteducational role.

Sole Foods Urban Farmers andpaid staff

Urban agriculture/socialenterprise

Stalleddevelopment sites

Pallet compatibleraised beds. Soilsupplied by localcompany

Traditional farm layout inrows. Large scale almostindustrial.

Polytunnels,irrigation

Recently a Social Enterprise Fund SEF one-offgrant of $52,000 for sales and marketingbyfunding the creation of a permanent farm standand hiring a farm stand manager for 2014.Since 2009 Sole Foods has received about$700,000 from various sources city andprivate.

Sole Foods now has several farms providingmeaningful employment. Aims to be self-sufficientand less dependent on funding in the next threeyears. Attitudes towards the idea of urbanagriculture have changed dramatically in recentyears and it is now embraced by the city.

ResourceCenter -City Farms

Original founderKen Dunn (backgroundin farming andrecycling)

Establish mobile farmson unused urban plotsuntil they areredeveloped

Vacant lots Compost made fromcollection of citywaste often laid overconcrete in thicklayers

More like traditional farmswith crops in rows

Polytunnels Private sponsors and public funding.The city allows the Resource Center to farmvacant land for free, providing it can raise$30,000 per acre from investors to fence thelot, produce rich soil and start planting. CSAShares.

Wide network of recycling projects, farms, marketsand restaurants promoting sustainable urbanliving and addressing social and environmentalissues


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Case Studies Summaries/Analysis

The design of temporary urban farms and growing projectsis led by architects, landscape architects, urban andenvironmental activists, artists, local communities andtraditional farmers. Projects are often collaborative and thecase studies illustrate the importance of interdisciplinarycooperation. Many of the projects combine opportunities

for designers to work together from architects developingstructural elements to product designers coming up withinnovative mobile planters, cooking units etc. Landscapearchitects have a key role to play in the layout andintegration of growing projects into the surrounding urbanenvironment. Designs need to be exible, adaptable andable to relocate if necessary.

The majority of the projects originate from a desireby city dwellers to grow their own food, to addressenvironmental issues and to kick start a debate about thesustainability of urban living and current food production.The case studies fall loosely into different groups but theiraims tend to overlap and it is difcult to tie them to oneparticular category. What they have in common is the

aim of engaging local people - from thinking about theorigins of their food to playing an active role in local foodproduction.

Most of the case studies are located on interim, post-industrial land awaiting development. The case studiesdemonstrate a number of key issues that confront theintegration of urban agriculture into the structure of thecity. Land ownership drives many of these projects to betemporary and nomadic in nature. They are often regardedas a positive, acceptable meanwhile use of developmentland a way of activating vacant lots and post-industrialland and improving the local environment. The recentsurge in urban growing projects coincides with a post

industrial transition period where the recent recessionhas led to stalled regeneration shemes and left pockets ofunused land in limbo. Many growing projects are born outof frustration where residents do not have access to greenspace or back gardens, so adopt land to produce theirown food. Prinzessinnengarten in Berlin has led the wayin this style of community garden using containers andportable structures in case they have to move to a newsite. While most projects are adapted to be temporary ormobile, many ght to stay on their existing site as theybecome more integrated into the local community.

Soil is a key issue in urban agriculture. In most casesit is brought in to ll raised beds or containers, whichovercomes the problems of contaminated land and poorsoil, but may require expensive transport. Sole Foods inVancouver buy soil in from just outside the city and useindustrial scale machinery to ll the raised beds. Some

would question the environmental sense of this systemand whether it might just be more energy efcient to farmoutside the city. In designing a growing project it is keyto consider the most sustainable ways of sourcing soilsand compost and to create an integrated system withinthe city. The urban agriculture projects in Chicago werepreceded by recycling schemes to turn city food wasteinto compost, which is now used to create city farms andgardens closing the loop within the city. There is arole for Leeds Edible Campus to research and examineways of creating healthy city soils, to source soil aslocally as possible, and for investigating whether existingsoils in the area are affected by pollution and how toimprove them. In creating a temporary farm it is alsoimportant to consider crop growing seasons to work out

whether some seeds will need to be sown off site andtransplanted as seedlings. This means using a network ofother organisations from the nursery to local schools andresidents to sow and nurture plants. This offers an idealopportunity to engage local communities and ensure theircontinued participation in the project.

The case studies demonstrate that a strong designand layout is important in raising the prole of urbanagriculture projects in cities and encouraging people tosee productive plants as part of city green spaces. Mostproject are developed with limited funding and usingrecycled materials. The work of Wayward Plants showsthat it is possible to create a strong, coherent, aesthetically

pleasing design with reclaimed timber and volunteerlabour. Prinzessinnengarten, Riverpark and Sole Foodsuse identical crates for all their planting, which creates asort of modular system designs look coordinated, thecrates are stacked or laid out in an efcient and functionalway to form different patterns and create enclosed spaces.

The cases studies cover a wide range of projects thathave incorporated a number of different features fromtemporary shelters and boundary structures to composttoilets and mobile cooking facilities. They show what

could be possible for a temporary agriculture project onthe Leeds Edible Campus. In addition to planting andharvesting most projects host workshops and sharedcooking sessions, and set up cafes to sell produce.

Funding for temporary agriculture projects comes from

a number of sources. A single project may have severalprivate sponsors alongside public funding. Landownerssometimes lease the land for free in return for propertytax breaks from the local authority. Some of the casestudies have sourced funding online through crowdfundingwebsites, which appears to be an increasingly popular wayof raising money. It is rare for urban agriculture to becompletely self-sustaining through sales of food. Of thecase studies Sole Foods and Riverpark are perhaps theclosest to becoming economically sustainable businesses.The city farms project in Chicago depends on income fromsales of their produce to high end restaurants in orderto be able to sell to the local community at a subsidisedprice, and their sites are surrounded by security fencingto protect crops from vandalism and theft. Many of the

case studies receive extra funding support by hostingworkshops and school visits.

The case studies demonstrate that even short termtemporary projects leave a lasting legacy through theshared experiences and lessons learnt. Commentarieson the internet and in the press, videos and pictures actas reminders and inspiration for new projects. Someare relocated to more permanent settings, while otherskick start a new way of thinking and lead people to starttheir own farms and gardens. Many help to reactivatedisused spaces and bring life to neglected areas. Theyhelp challenge ideas of land ownership and how urbangreen spaces are designed. Community involvement

empowers local people to have a say in the urban planningprocess. The wider legacy of many of these projects isthe contribution they make to social cohesion buildingcommunities and providing work and skills training, andthe positive environmental impact they have in terms ofgreening local neighbourhoods through new planting andtrees.


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Leeds Edible CampusSite Analysis


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Leeds Edible Campus

Proposed site for temporary/

mobile agriculture as part of the

Leeds Edible Campus - MonumentMoor

Woodhouse Moor

Public Park

Site for a temporary farm

Cinder Moor

Temporary Car Park

and event space

Monument Moor - overflow

temporary car park andamenity grass

Edible Campus - location withinthe city of Leeds, West Yorkshire

To the west of the busy WoodhouseLane (A660) the main park coversapproximately 26 hectares and hasalmost three million visitors a year,making it one of the most popularurban parks in Leeds. To the eastof the road Cinder moor functionsmainly as a temporary car park andevent site, and Monument moor asan overow car park, and amenitygrass. Booking timetables fortemporary parking show that formuch of the time Monument Moor isnot in use, and is mainly booked bythe University approximately one ortwo days a month.

WoodhouseLane


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Grass

Hard standing

Rough grass overhard standing

Existing trees

Desire line

Pedestrian access

Vehicle access

Grassy bank

Studentaccommodation

Busy main road

Towards city centre

Towards main park

Residential area

Car Park/coach park

Towards Headingley

Monument

Temporary overflowcarpark

Amenity grass

From main park

Traffic flow

Monument Moor1:1000

How it looks now

A

A

B

C

B

C


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Unity DayFollowing riots in 1995 and the loss of the local pub theNewlands, the local community decided to counteractnegative press by holding a day of celebration in the park.Hundreds of bands, performers, artists and volunteerhelpers come together to celebrate the people, cultureand community of this area of Leeds. The event is paid forthrough grants and local fundraising. If a temporary farm

was to be sited on Monument Moor it would make sense towork with the Unity Day organisers to coordinate eventsand to design extra activities to coincide with events in thepark. Other events in the city may also offer opportunitiesfor a temporary farm to host activities to coincide withthese activities for example The Tour de France will passthrough Leeds and the RHS are encouraging people toplant yellow owers along the route. While MonumentMoor is not on the route this is an idea that the EdibleCampus could embrace.

The Monument Moor SiteMonument Moor has been selected as an appropriate siteto develop a temporary urban agriculture project on the

Leeds Edible Campus due to the fact that it lies directly inthe path of the proposed trolleybus scheme and thereforehas an uncertain future with several proposals havingbeen put forward for its potential layout and indicativelandscaping. With this in mind the opportunity exists tomake suggestions and experiment to inuence the futureuse of the site and to incorporate productive planting intothe nal design. The latest drawings for the trolleybusproposals show a new layout for the area directly adjacentto the monument, with amenity grass on the gravel areacurrently used for temporary parking. Given that thesuggested design for the lower area is for reinforcedgrassed parking space, there is room for experimentationin the interim period removal of the existing grassto create a small productive eld with blocks of single

crops to illustrate to residents how a productive urbanlandscape might look. At the moment the area is notheavily used as amenity land and acts more as a shortcut between destinations. Bookings for using the siteas a temporary car park show that it is the Cinder Moorsite that is predominantly used, with Monument Mooroccasionally acting as an overow. For the duration ofa temporary farm on Monument Moor visitors could beencouraged to use the newly renovated multi-storey carpark behind Broadcasting Place and in future to use thenew trolleybus.

The upper area of monument Moor - hard-standing with grassy edges


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Leeds Trolleybus Proposals

This site will be directly affected by the Leeds Trolleybusscheme if it goes ahead. This provides an opportunity tolook at potential changes to the site and how it might beadapted further to accommodate food growing.

The drawings show proposals from June 2013 and thenrevised drawings from October. The Latest proposalsshow that the existing area of hardstanding will bereplaced with amenity grass and the lower area will bereinforced to presumably serve as an overow car park.

Tree planting is proposed along the bank between thetwo levels and along the boundaries of the whole site.Some paths will be removed around the monument andthe plan suggests that there will be some new planting

immediately adjacent to the moment area to make thismore of a focal point.

Earlier proposal forlandscaping ofMonument Moor oncethe trolley bus isrunning

Most recent proposalOctober 2013

Proposed reinforced grass(future overflow carparking?)

Amenity grass

Fewer pathpathways around

monument

Meadow area

Proposed new trees on banking as wellas along boundary edges of each area

Trolleybus routeGrass verge - much the same as no butwith more tree planting

Site Analysis

The following site analysis examines the site as it isnow and looks at how it could be used for a temporaryurban agriculture project. However the exible, mobilenature of temporary designs means that elementscould be adapted to work with the re-landscaping ofthe site following the implementation of the trolleybus,and that temporary features could be absorbed morepermanently into the site.


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Cinder MoorCar Park/coach park

Level hard standing -good vehicle access. Idealarea for building ashelter/structure, offloading pallets etc.

Level, grass lush, lookshealthy - could this beremoved and used as atemporary growingspace? Demonstrationfield

Take advantage of thebank to build steps andchange dynamics of thespace - link two areas

Design around existingaccess - design should

allow for people to beable to walk through oraround if some partsare closed off at certaintimes of the day

Aspect - north facingslope but feels open andsunny.

Using the two spaces in differentways

Upper area of hard standing -create temporary structure,

cooking area, information,moveable planters for edible cropssuch as leafy vegetables, salad etc.

Lower area - make a statement.Challenge perceptions of publicspace in city. Could this be aproductive space withoutcompromising recreational areasfor local community - field crops?Create satellite projects

- for example in mainpark

Main entrance forvehicles

Grass verge next tomain road -opportunity to createtrial beds to test

pollution levels

Monument area - grassed areathat could be planted to makemonument more of a feature.Will be altered after trolleybus

but could be an area forexperimental beds to explore theidea of planting edible plants asornamentals

1:1000Site Analysis


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Opportunities Issues Possible solutions/outcomesPlanning Creating a temporary urban farm on the Leeds Edible Campus will give the

opportunity to promote the project while at the same time providing entertainment,

information etc. opportunity for people to be involved on a small scale (not a long

term commitment)

Timescale - A temporary garden over summer means that all plants will need to

be grown somewhere else and transplanted and some will be harvested after the

end of summer. Transient population means need core of willing staff/volunteers to

coordinate

Create a strong network of participants and timetable planting etc.

Design Opportunity for collaborative work between designers and local residents, budding

farmers and local businesses. A temporary design means designers can flex their

muscles and be a bit experimental. Can challenge people on urban design - how

they want their city to look - opportunity to change perception without having to

commit long-term. A strong design will help engage people, and sell the idea of

urban agriculture/food growing in urban spaces

Need to design for flexibility. Site open so no fixtures that could be used as starting

point. Security/protection an issue

Devise a way of creating boundaries that become part of the structure -

planting/climbers etc help lose security fencing

Long hours of activity

Getting local people involved

Explore ways of creating public space which is open and accessible while

protecting individual plots

Location A temporary project on Cinder moor may bring life to the park when nothing

otherwise going on - highlight issues - future planning - trolleybus

Proximity to park - opportunity to involve Friends of Woodhouse moor and local

people - combined events Unity Day

Location - very studenty area - empty during the summer months - would need to

try and attract visitors and location not that close to city centre. Site very open -

need to determine how to make secure or whether to have open access. No water or

electricity. SIte used for other events so would have to fit with these

Look at ways of involving people throughout the process - consider different

groups

Overseas students often stay in Leeds over summer

Planting Sowing seeds - coordination. If only summer season installation plants need to be

brought in and transplanted or containers planted in advance on another site

Transport issues. If all planting done on site - easier to transport all materials and

then plant. Once containers filled with soil and planted - harder to transport

Engage local community, students and schools in seed planting activities

Soil Any urban agriculture project offers the opportunity to use recycled composted

waste produced within the city

Supply of soil/compost suited to food growing in containers - finding a reliable

supply. Soil health issues of growing in containers

Look at getting recycled sewage waste from Yorkshire Water

Compost from Bardon Grange?

Look at mixes/lightweight containers for easy transportTransport/

mobility

Creating a temporary garden with containers and on pallets means it is easy to

transport to another site or distribute parts to different projects. Some parts can be

dismantled over the winter to free up space. Modular systems mean that layouts/

depth etc. can be changed. Can be sited anywhere smaller containers can be

carried by hand where accessibility an issue

The practicality of hiring lifting and transport equipment. Accessibility for equipment

forklift trucks,

Disadvantages of not growing directly in the ground -

Replenishing soil/improving city soils

Irrigation - plants in containers dry out more quickly

Using crates or smaller units stacked on pallets

Planting green manures in boxes to replenish soil if they are to be reused

Structures Opportunity to use reclaimed/recycled materials to create structures for storage,

meeting, workshops, cooking and eating - flexibility means these can be used

across the campus at different events or adapted for different use

Temporary structures less likely to be as robust. Damage could occur when

dismantled and transported

Keep designs simple and easy to construct.

Harvesting Having a temporary project with public access - opportunities for a wide range of

people to be involved in harvesting - cooking activities/festivals etc. brings people

together

Some produce more suited to regular harvesting. Harvesting times for some

vegetables may not coincide with period that temporary farm is up and running.

Arrange to move some produce to different projects or local schools/residents

to keep a continual cycle and create a network of support. It would work well

for schools to take over responsibility for some plants in the autumn when term

starts

Irrigation No access to water on site

Problem for irrigation

Also for food preparation, small cafe/hand washing?

Arrange with council to set up water bowser or top up water containers

Create some system to collect rainwater

Look at portable systems - road side cafesPower Lack of power supply for cooking and mak ing hot dr inks Look at ways of generat ing e lect rici ty th rough sma ll -sca le instal la tions tha t

could enhance the project and attract interest in environmental solutions/green

energy

Creating a temporary urban agriculture installation as part of Leeds Edible Campus


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Growing a single crop to makea statementDig up the lower section ofmonument moor and createa productive plot - eld ofbeans?

Temporary bean eld to highlight certainissues

Food resilience and future foodStarting a conversation

Beans and peas are healthy and makea good protein rich substitute for meat.They grow well in the UK but simply fellout of fashion.

They are important in agriculturalrotations they x nitrogen so are grownbetween cereal crops. They reduce theneed for synthetic fertilizers - encouraginggood farming practice.

Pressure from population growth is placingpressure on the land. Do we want lab-grown meat or do beans offer a moresimple low-tech solution?

Bean harvesting and processing -

Beans are harvested using combine harvesters andprocessed by grain merchants, where they are cleanedand screened. This is large scale farming dealing inbatches of 100 tonnes at any one time for an exportmarket.

Food suppliers in the UK who want to source organicbeans in smaller quantities are now starting to engage

directly with farmers to encourage processing on asmaller scale. Generally it is hard to nd organic UKproduced pulses. Farmers are put off by a lack ofcondence in the domestic market and the logistics ofcleaning small batches. Pests and disease also contributeto this reluctance to grow beans.

Looking at other crops that make a statement andinform about British food growing and the movement ofcrops

Hops - sometimes imported from New Zealand but once

grown widely in the UK

Other eld crops that would be interesting to grow aspart of a temporary growing project

Potatoes - good yield for the amount of land and getspeople digging.Sweetcorn - best eaten fresh. Easy to cook straight fromharvesting on a BBQJerusam Artichokes or sunowers - yellow owers soattractive visually.

Monument Moor Moor - lower grassed areaConcept idea - Field of beans

Leeds Edible CampusDesign Ideas

Fava beans (eld beans/broad beans) Vicia faba

The fava bean commonly known as the broad bean is one of the oldest cultivated crops in the UK, datingas far back as the iron age and made a signicantcontribution to the British diet for centuries. It becameless fashionable as it was increasingly perceived as afood for the poor but despite this British farmers havecontinued to grow the eld beans in crop rotationproducing about 500,000 tonnes a year, which aremainly exported to the middle East or sold as animalfeed. Nowadays broad beans tend to be eaten freshwhereas originally they were left to dry on the plantbefore harvesting and stored .


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PROPOSAL - to create a temporary urbanfarm installation on Monument moor

Area 1 - the lower areaPlant eld crops into the existing soils as ademonstration area. Aim - to challenge howopen public space might be used for foodgrowing in the future and to demonstrate

specic crops

Area 2 - the upper areaCreate a temporary mobile farm or marketgardenTransportable growing containers using

palletsTemporary structure built from scaffolding

poles with corrugated roof - a sort of urbanbarnBoundary - biodiversity strip with wild ower

planting to camouage temporary fencing

Trailer greenhousesCompost toiletWater collectionSeating and events spaceOrchard trees in portable planters - torelocate within the Leeds Edible Campus orto be planted on Monument Moor as partof the new landscaping around the newtrolleybus route.

The Field

Create plots planted with a single crop surrounded by

meadow ower border. Paths between the plots allowpeople to cut through.

The Mobile Orchard &Market Garden

Propose experimenting withedible ornamental planting

around the monument area

Potential areafor trial bedsto test forenvironmentalpollution

1:1000

An area of mobile raised plantingbeds for vegetables, salad crops,herbs and fruit trees. This areawill demonstrate ways of creating atemporary growing space that can berelocated to other parts of Leeds.

Plan


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1:250

Field beans

Jerusalem artichokes

Potatoes

Sweetcorn

green manureclover

The Field


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Field Crops

Crop Cultivation Leeds Project Images

Sweetcorn Zea mays

Swift F1 hybrid

Quicker to germinate and more vigorous than other

varieties. Suitable for cooler climates.

Produces 2-3 18cm cobs per plant

Sow under cover in April and plant out afterrisk of frost 45cm apart in blocks to encourage

pollination. Harvest once liquid of grains ismilky late summer, early autumn.

Arrange for plants to be grown at Redhall Nurseries and transplanted to the siteend May/beginning June.

Harvesting involves hand picking the cobs. Easily cooked outdoors on a barbecue

providing opportunity for shared meals

Potatoes Solanum tuberosum

Choose varieties that are disease resistant

1st earlies plant March

2ndearlies plant April

Maincrop plant May

Beauty of Bute 2ndearly

Sante early main

Cara reliable main crop

Potatoes are grown from seed potatoes,

chitted for about six weeks before planting.This could be carried out either through the

nursery, in local schools or through the localcommunity followed by an organised plantingday.

The planting of potatoes will depend on the timing of the project. Planting earlies

and a maincrop means that there is a more staggered harvest, however for thepurpose of the project it may be simpler to plant and harvest a single crop.

Field beans Vicia faba

Wizard prolific, hardy variety that can also be sown as

a winter crop to be dug in in spring as a green manure.

Robust plants that grow up to 1m high

Sow in spring planting seeds 5cm deep in

rows 30cm apart

Seeds can be planted in succession for continual cropping. Young beans can be

eaten fresh and those harvested later can be dried for storing. Growing field beansas part of this project is a way of demonstrating a versatile crop that has

traditionally been grown in the UK since the iron age and is also good for the soil.An over wintering crop for green manure means that the soil remains continuallyplanted.

Jerusalem artichokes Helianthus tuberosus

Fuseau smooth variety which is easier to prepare for

cooking

Good for breaking up uncultivated ground

Plant tubers in spring 10-15cm deep, 30cmapart. Leave at least a metre between some

rows for access. If plants become too tallthey can be cut back. Pretty yellow flowers in

late summers

Produces nutty flavoured tubers which can be harvested in the autumnGreat for making soup.

Green manures - Crimson clover

1.6 g per square metre

Sow in spring Can be left to flower to attract bees and pollinating insects. Introduces the idea of

soil management in the city as part of urban agriculture and as a replacement toamenity grass.

Wild flower boundary edge - Flower mix example:

Pictorial Meadows "Golden Summer" Perennial MixFor normal fertility soils - a mix of yellows and golds with

hints of orange and purple.

Contains amongst other species :

Garden Yarrow, Achillea Millefolium

Perennial Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia Fulgida Deamii

Lance-leaf Coreopsis Coroepsis Lanceolata

Lady's Bedstraw Galium Verum

Yellow Oxe-eye Leucanthemum Vulgare

Meadow Butttercup Ranunculus Acris

Sow according to instructions.Use a mix suited to normal soil fertility.

A boundary strip of wild flower planting will help define the productive areas andencourage pollinators. It is proposed that some of this area be given over to

meadow planting as part of the trolley bus schemes remediation so this will serveas an experimental trial.


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The Barn

Biodiversity Edge - sowwild ower seed along theboundary fence

Fruit trees inmobile planters

Leafy vegetablesand salad crops incontainers stackedon pallets

Trailergreenhouses or

coldframes

Protectivefencing - use tosite informationboards, supportclimbers etc.

1:250

Seating AreaEvent SpaceMarket Square

Composttoilet &Bowser

The Mobile Orchard &Market Garden

Mobileplanters

Permeable courtyardarea leading peopleinto the temporaryfarm or down stepsto the eld


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Overview of proposed design for temporaryagriculture on Monument Moor


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The BarnA temporary structure built from scaffolding tocreate a covered area to act as a focal pointfor activities, events, information, and sharedmeals. Construct as a modular system designedfor exibility.

While it might be unrealistic to rely on rainwatercollection to water all plants grown - particularlyduring the summer months - setting up somesort of water collection system would helpdemonstrate the principle for people wanting toset up their own growing systems.

Water for at the QueensWalk allotment gardensSouthbank London waspumped and ltered fromthe river Thames at hightide

Dalston Barn EasterCurve Garden


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A temporary garden in Copenhagen - demonstratesthe use of pallets and stacking collars, which can befolded when not in use. They are frequently used astemporary planters due to their exibility. By stackingthe pallets at different heights it is possible to createmore interesting designs and also to design slopes toface the sun.

Boxes could be planted according to approximateharvest times - for example a box planted with autumnvegetables could be relocated to a local school orcommunity group should the farm be dismantled at theend of the summer.

Some boxes could be tailored towards certain groups todemonstrate different combinations of crops for examplea mix of salad leaves and herbs that would suit beingplaced outside local cafes.

The Market Garden Containers and trolleysDifferent containers and trolleys constructed fromreclaimed timber double up as planters as seating,are mobile and could be relocated at the end of thetemporary installation to be used in local schoolplaygrounds, at community centres etc.


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The Mobile Orchard

Planning for a temporary mobile orchard

The best time to plants trees is in the winter when theyare dormant and can be supplied as a bareroot plant. Ifthe temporary farm is a summer installation trees would

have to be planted off-site and transported, or suppliedin containers.

What size tree?

The trees planted at Obsthain Ehrenfeld were 16/18cmgirth, heavy standard trees with a rootball of 500mm x500mm, approx. 4m high. Trees of this size are heavierand require more careful handling and specialized liftingequipment. Plant sizes for temporary projects willdepend very much on budget, availability and accessto lifting equipment. A light standard 6/8cm girthwith a clear stem of at least 1.5m is probably a goodcompromise. Using lighter trees is much cheaper andare much easier to handle especially if being planted

by volunteers. Ideally trees would be planted onsite as bareroots between November and March, andtransferred during the following dormant season toanother temporary home or to be planted permanentlyin the ground.

Containers need to have approximate dimensions of750mm x 750mm x 600 high and should ideally beforklift compatible.

Octavias Orchard - Southbank London 2013 galvanizedwheelie bins are used as planters for the fruit trees. Oneadvantage of using bins is that they are more mobile (onlevel ground and hard standing) and their height meansthat the trees remain protected. These trees wererelocated to local housing estates for planting.

The following table gives examples of varieties of fruitand nut trees that could be grown in the mobile orchardbefore being transferred to permanent positions - thefruit trees are all hardy and suited to growing in thenorth of England. They are also good pollinators -important to ensure a good harvest.

Tree container builtfrom reclaimed scaffoldboards 225mm wide,38mm thick

Plastic bottle forwatering


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Fruit and nut tr eesLatin Name Rootstock Description ImageCastanea sativa Sweet

chestnut

Potentially large tree with edible nuts

Corylus avellanahazlenut Edible nuts Cultivars need a compatible pollinator

Juglans regiacommon walnut Edible nuts

Can make wine from young foliage. Thrives on most soils

Malus domesticaJames

Grieve Apple

M106 Pollination Group BGrows well in the North and tolerates nearly all types of soils. Good dessert apple, very prolific. Flowers are fairly resistant to frost damage.

Good pollinator. Harvest SeptemberMalus domesticaJupiter

App le

M25 Polllination Group B Self-fertileLate season dessert apple, juicy and sweet with a full aromatic Cox-like flavour. Hardy and suitable for growing in the North. Vigorousgrowth and a heavy cropper, although can be biennial. October harvest.

Malus domesticaKaty

App le

MM106 Pollination Group CGood for north of England. Ideal for juicing. Harvest September

Malus domesticaLord Derby

App le

MM106 Pollination Group D Self-fertile

A very prolific late culinary apple. Grass-green fruit have a good flavour and stay intact when cooked; the tree is very hardy and suitablefor the North; good resistance to scab and succeeds well on wet soils. October harvest.

Malus domestica Newton

Wonder Apple

M25 Dual Purpose Pollination Group COne of the best cooking apples available, which stores well and mellows into an acceptable dessert apple. Tolerant of late frosts.

Malus domestica Spartan

App le

M25 Dessert Pollination Group BDark purplish-red with a sweet flavour and a lovely aroma. Good pollinator of other varieties and very disease resistant.

Malus domesticaSunset

App le

M25 Pollination Group B self-fertile

The best substitute for Cox's Orange Pippin in the North of England. Colourful blossom, good flavour, regular cropper and fairly resistant tofrost. October harvest.

Malus sylvestrisEvereste

Crab Apple

Good pollinator self-fertile. November harvest

Malus sylvestrisGolden

Hornet Crab apple

Good pollinator self-fertile. November harvest. Attractive yellow fruit.

Malus sylvestrusJohn Downie

Crab apple

Vigorous tree with attractive pink buds followed by white flowers. Orange fruits and beautiful autumn foliage colour. Good pollinator for all

apple trees.

Morus nigra Black mulberry Sweet juicy deep purple berries in late September. Makes great jam.

Prunus cerasifera Cherry plum Abundant white blossom followed by small edible fruits. Generally self-fertile

Prunus domesticaMarjorie

Seedling

Julien A rootstock Pollination Group E self-fertile. Harvest September

Prunus domestica subsp

institiaMerryweather Damson Julien A rootstock Partially self-fertileWhite spring blossom. Purple fruit in late summer. Good for culinary use.

Pyrus Concorde Pear Quince Arootstock

Flowering group 4 Late seasonOne of the best pears for

Rachel Forbes Temporary Farm

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