As the world’s population grows, the natural resources used to produce food are increasingly threatened by climate change, and urban sprawl continues to take the place of farmland, we urgently need solutions that are more creative to grow, distribute and consume food.
Henry Gordon Smith
On which professions will we have to rely to build a more secure future in terms of food? Architects, town planners… but also farmers. Since 2011, the Briton Henry Gordon-Smith has been writing on the subject, and has invented a portmanteau to symbolise this essential rapprochement between these disciplines: agritecture.
The Briton and his team educate and advise young entrepreneurs by better preparing them for the realities of running an urban agriculture business. Agritecture has become the world’s leading urban agriculture consultancy, with more than 130 clients in more than 50 cities.
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FutureCity Food Hub © Chris Jones, Brian McCarthy -
Retail Apocalypse © Zeynab Matar, Andrea Baraggia, Mohamed Adel El Begermie
Utopia? No, urban farm!
In 2021, Agritecture launched a call for architects and designers to think about future urban food scenarios. Here are some examples of these innovative concepts.
- In Paramus (New Jersey, USA), the conversion of an Ikea car park into an urban agricultural operation, a mixture of greenhouses, vertical farms and community spaces
- Retail Apocalypse: a former slaughterhouse in Milan transformed into an urban farm combined with an original shopping experience
- FutureCity Food Hub (Cork, Ireland): the conversion of an ordinary car park into a food centre, with indoor vertical crops and a greenhouse on the roof
- Mexico City: within Altozano Querétaro, a residential complex where housing coexists harmoniously with vast green spaces, equipment allowing resilient food production and a farm-to-table restaurant. 85% of the country is currently experiencing a drought, which threatens the ability of farmers to produce food.
All these projects, and many others, can be found on the Agritecture website.
