Urban Agroecology Studio

Abstract

The Agroecology Design Studio addresses the challenge of transforming urban agriculture in the Zurich Metropolitan Area, in response to climate change, to provide local food, to improve biodiversity and to develop new governance systems involving local farmers and citizens. Agroecology plays a crucial role. The studio will work closely with Grün Stadt Zürich on five selected sites.

Objective

Through participation in the studio, our learning objectives are: -to gain an overview of pioneering practices in agriculture and understand the principles of agroecology -to gain a critical perspective on accepted landscape canons- (in canton Zurich) in particular regarding agriculture -to gain an understanding of the ecological interconnection of a complex range of issues; pollution, climate change, global food chains, biodiversity, use of resources, community participation and agricultural labour, and the interdisciplinary dimension of territorial design. -to synthesise and communicate complex range of issues in a coherent, creative and convincing manner -to apply the principles of agroecology in design -to design in a reflexive way, utilising and applying political and theoretical dimensions in the design work where appropriate -to move between scales; micro, mini-region, and macro-scales and understand the critical elements that effect different scales - to comprehensively represent ideas through drawings, video, and present this in a reportage format online. -to learn how to work constructively in a group The Zurich cantonal border corresponds roughly to the commuting space of the metropolitan region; hence the agricultural landscapes are tightly interwoven with expanding urban development. As well as producing local food, these valuable agricultural landscapes are under pressure to provide recreation and leisure opportunities for an expanding urban population, and an improved range of habitats in the face of dramatic biodiversity loss. Instead of focusing on the well-studied cities, our studio applies design as an instrument to readdress the territorial subject as a whole and develop an integrated vision for its agroecological transformation. This reversed view lies at the core of the methodology, and an understanding of its critical importance is a key learning objective. Students will become familiar with pioneering agricultural practices, the principles of agroecology, interlinkages between forests, water, soil and productivity, and how these practices impact territory. The City of Zürich owns around 95% of its agricultural land, which alongside cemeteries, community gardens, parks, and sports areas, is managed by Grün Stadt Zürich. Both the visionary policies Grün Stadt Zürich is already pursuing, and the major changes due on their leasehold farms in the near future, particularly at Uetliberg, point to a potential spatial and ecological transformation of these areas, with Grün Stadt Zürich playing a key role. This semester the Agroecology Design Studio aims to develop strategies for these areas in close collaboration with Grün Stadt Zürich and a range of community members.

Content

The MAS explores a new role for the designer who repairs damages wrought by urbanisation processes in the previous decades and asks how we can catalyse positive processes of transformation that lead to socially and environmentally just landscapes and territories. The Urban Agroecology Studio is focused on the transformation of agricultural territories in canton Zürich. As well as international references, the studio draws on a wealth of research and design precedents at the Architecture of Territory Chair, the programme’s accompanying workshops, sessions and courses and parallel research carried out with Future Cities Laboratory Global (Zurich and Singapore). Our FCL Global research proposes seven types of urbanisation processes where specific agricultural and urban characteristics, soil and production patterns, and urban and land-use transformation pathways are consolidated. This requires interdisciplinary research and design collaboration. In addition to the academic context created at ETH, we rely on knowledge from farmers, local initiatives and communities who live, work and experience the landscape and societal changes taking place. Using the proposed landscape typology "the Metropolitan Core" as a basis, the studio will closely investigate five exemplary sites of urban agriculture on Uetliberg, inside the administrative area of Zürich city. We have observed a societal change whereby city and urban dwellers express the wish to be closer to agriculture, both physically and mentally. Can we rethink social relations linked to the land and define space for solidarity practices in agriculture? Can we redesign the cultural laws leading to commodification of landscape? Can we undo previous industrial practices and other complex processes? Starting with the specific social and ecological conditions of Uetliberg, the studio will develop proposals for a long-term vision for this urban-agricultural landscape beyond 2040, and demonstrate how it can be integrated into a broader agroecological strategy in Zurich to improve and enrich Zurich’s urban planning. We explore how a societal change towards agriculture can become part of Zurich’s urban experience. What are potentials and opportunities for transforming existing agricultural and other open spaces into an agroecological urban landscape which accommodates recreational needs and invites public engagement? The principles of Agroecology offer an important basis for such a transformation. Not only focusing on food production, Agroecology pays attention to inequalities such as the under-recognised role of women in agriculture and promotes a solidarity economy between producers and consumers. Agroecology is a social project, aiming for equity and justice, an ecological project, and a design project. The design studio is at the core of the programme–sessions, courses and inputs are curated in such a way as to directly support the design work and project development through interdisciplinary exchange. In addition, significant resources are reserved for field work investigation in this unique studio, which plays a central role within the methodology–design work is based on in-depth exploration of the field and context. We will learn from different practices and engage with both regular and more extreme farmers and pioneers. Mobile and multi-sited ethnographies, interviews, oral histories, participant observation, visual study and archival work are indispensable to building a body of original research and to gradually formulating the research and design hypotheses in the studio. The fieldwork is generally conducted after the semester’s three-week overture period. It encompasses group and individual visits to project sites, meetings with inhabitants, community organizations and municipal offices with Grün Stadt Zürich as the key partner.

Resources