Samenvatting

Urban Farming is a design project with a dual objective. It aims to provide a sustainable model for community engagement and food security in Rotterdam. Near Nieuw Mathenesse in the former harbor area now known as the M4H development zone, a sizeable waterfront site is chosen for a transformation of an industrial site into a thriving community hub, merging a mix of agricultural models with urban life, and setting a new standard for sustainable city living. The programmatic outlines bring together vertical farming, food laboratories, aquaponic systems, community gardening, co-working spaces, market area and restaurants in a multilevel superstructure, partly closed and partly open, with a waterfront and a public pathway structure meandering through. The design as a whole functions as a park, with a diversity of spaces and routes, both outdoors and indoors, which offer opportunities for user groups and individual parties to engage in gardening and enjoy the social benefits of a large, shared space. The project addresses the idea of a new urban landscape with room for sustainable agriculture in a compelling way, not in the least because of the large scale framing a series of many intermittent scales.