City Agriculture - October 14, 2020

 Map of the public access fruit trees of Toronto

http://www.mapto.ca/maps/the-fruit-trees-of-toronto

Green transformation for a railway yard in St Petersburg, Russia
https://www.orangearchitects.nl/projects/ligovsky-city/
https://inhabitat.com/former-railway-yard-to-receive-a-green-transformation-in-st-petersburg/

Self-sufficient skyscraper proposed for NYC
https://www.lissoniandpartners.com/en/architecture/competitions/americas/completed/skylines-new-york/1289
https://inhabitat.com/self-sufficient-garden-city-skyscraper-proposed-for-nyc/

Harrisburg, PA from abandoned school to urban eco-village, including indoor food production
https://www.fastcompany.com/90535345/a-former-nfl-player-is-turning-this-abandoned-building-into-an-ecovillage
hat tip Media Diet: http://tinyurl.com/joinmediadiet

SUPERVERDE - urban greening modules
https://inhabitat.com/stefano-boeri-proposes-superverde-urban-greening-modules/

The Kitchen Farming Project - unemployed line cooks (and the public) invited to garden and build a new food future
https://resourcedny.com/the-kitchen-farming-project

Everybody Eats - a food relief program in Brattleboro, VT leverages CARES Act funds to engage local restaurants in making to-go meals for anyone in Brattleboro, Guilford, Vernon, Dummerston, or Putney who has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis due to unemployment, underemployment, homelessness, or other challenges. Over 10,000 meals will be distributed in the month of August, with nine Brattleboro restaurants providing a total of 650 meals per day for at least four weeks.
https://www.brattleboro.com/everyoneeats/

Paris encourages all citizens to become urban gardeners
https://popupcity.net/observations/paris-encourages-all-citizens-to-become-urban-gardeners/

World's biggest rooftop greenhouse opens in Montreal
https://phys.org/news/2020-08-world-biggest-rooftop-greenhouse-montreal.html

Asia’s largest organic rooftop farm spans 236,806 square feet, can provide up to 80,000 meals (20 tons of organic food), and grows more than 40 edible species of crops, including rice, indigenous vegetables, fruit trees and herbs
https://inhabitat.com/asias-largest-organic-rooftop-farm-can-grow-20-tons-of-food-annually/

Vertical forest goes wild in Chengdu, China
https://www.curbed.com/2020/9/18/21445069/qiyi-city-forest-garden-mosquitoes-chengdu

Resourcing an Agroecological Urbanism:  Political, Transformational and Territorial Dimensions by Chiara Tornaghi, Michiel Dehaene
https://www.routledge.com/Resourcing-an-Agroecological-Urbanism-Political-Transformational-and-Territorial/Tornaghi-Dehaene/p/book/9781138359680

City Agriculture - July 8, 2020

Montreal plans a biodiversity corridor through the city
http://www.civiliti.com/projects/biodiversity-corridor-113
https://inhabitat.com/montreal-unveils-plans-for-award-winning-biodiversity-corridor/

Singapore’s EDEN apartments finished - 20 storeys built around gardens
http://www.heatherwick.com/projects/buildings/eden/
https://inhabitat.com/heatherwick-studio-completes-nature-filled-eden-apartments-in-singapore/

Babylon Bridge - a proposed multi-storey garden and pedestrian bridge for Paris
https://inhabitat.com/babylon-bridge-features-hanging-gardens-over-the-seine/
http://rescubika.com

Citizen scientist finds 573 species in his Cambridge, UK “ordinary-sized” city garden
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-52840241
hat tip:  boingboing.net

Guerrilla Grafters - "grafting fruit-producing limbs onto sterile urban trees, specifically bred not to bear fruit"
https://returntonow.net/2020/05/30/guerilla-grafters-secretly-graft-fruit-bearing-branches-onto-sterile-city-trees/

Victoria, BC distributes vegetable seedlings for free
https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/victoria-bc-you-can-get-vegetable-seedlings-free.html

Paris’ Saint Gobains tower has gardens on all floors
https://inhabitat.com/gardens-grow-on-all-floors-of-saint-gobains-crystalline-hq/
http://www.v-p.com/en

Wellesley College Global Flora greenhouse "exceeds the Net Zero Water & Energy requirements of the Living Building Challenge, the world’s most rigorous certification of sustainable construction."
http://www.kvarch.net/projects/133
https://inhabitat.com/wellesleys-global-flora-greenhouse-can-generate-all-of-its-own-energy/


Amsterdam’s worm hotels
https://youtu.be/1I2ECk6R5Kw
https://wormenhotel.nl - in Dutch but pictures!

Urban Agriculture and Climate Change: “The New Normal”
Thursday, July 9 (through August 20)
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/urban-agriculture-and-climate-change-the-new-normal-tickets-110206065308
Join Instructor Mason Trappio to gain an understanding of how climate change affects the urban farmer and the growth of new crops.
This course informs the urban and peri-urban farmer about how climate change affects them and provides strategies for how to successfully adapt. 
Length of Course: 1 hour 
Dates: 
July 9, 2020
July 23, 2020
August 6, 2020
August 20, 2020 
Course Fees: Free 
Course Description:
Our growing environments are affected, to varing degrees, by climate change. Increased temperatures, greenhouse emissions, and insect populations all challenge our farming operations. In this course, you will gain an understanding of how climate change affects the urban farmer, and new crops to grow in this New Normal. 
Credentials Earned: This a noncredit stand-alone course. 
What You Will Learn: 
How climate change can impact farming operations 
How to use cover crops to mitigate climate change 
How to use climate-smart crops in the face of climate change 
Who should participate? Anyone can participate 
Registration Information:  TBA
Course Instructor: Mason Trappio 
For further information about the course, please contact course instructor Mason Trappio directly at mason.trappio@gmail.com, or Director of the Center for Urban Agriculture and Gardening Education, Che Axum, directly at mchezaji.axum@udc.edu.

City Agriculture - May 27, 2020

“Tree-like” vertical farms for Brooklyn?
https://www.framlab.com/glasir
https://www.core77.com/posts/94000/Could-These-Tree-Like-Vertical-Farms-Be-the-Future-of-Urban-Farming

Underground parking lot to organic mushroom farm in Paris (the ONLY organic farm in the city - so far)
https://medium.com/fab-city-grand-paris/our-maker-farmers-visit-the-mushroom-urban-farm-in-paris-c653e87c026e
https://lacaverne.co/en/cavern-urban-farm/

How urban trees and hedges help cut air pollution
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/18/plantwatch-how-urban-trees-and-hedges-help-cut-air-pollution
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1352231018308938

Can local food feed an urban world?
https://anthropocenemagazine.org/2016/10/can-local-food-feed-an-urban-world/

Green Concept House - a zero-waste, 100% self-sustaining home, including growing food
https://www.archdaily.com/934277/green-house-yang-design
https://inhabitat.com/a-zero-waste-self-sustaining-home-of-the-future/

Safezone Shelter - air pollution protection using plants in a shelter in Bangkok
https://inhabitat.com/futuristic-safezone-shelter-battles-air-pollution-in-thailand-with-a-green-oasis/

Vertical Oasis - concept for a green solar-powered skyscraper
https://faab.pl/en/vertical-oasis/
https://inhabitat.com/architects-envision-a-green-solar-powered-skyscraper/

12 “agrihoods"
https://charterforcompassion.org/shareable-community-ideas/12-agrihoods-taking-farm-to-table-living-mainstream

Link City - proposed self-sustainable city-forest, using an urban operating system with an AI (Artificial Intelligence)
https://www.lucacurci.com/portfolio/the-link-city.html
https://inhabitat.com/luca-curci-architects-designs-a-zero-energy-smart-city-of-the-future/

City farms underground
https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/the-massive-farms-emerging-beneath-our-cities.html

Green wall made from clay tiles also provides natural cooling
https://inhabitat.com/this-green-wall-uses-upcycled-clay-tiles-for-natural-cooling/

Which trees reduce air pollution best
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200504-which-trees-reduce-air-pollution-best

City Agriculture - February 13, 2020

Sead microplanters - growing system using recycled plastic planters and chain link fence
https://www.plantseads.com
https://inhabitat.com/sead-pod-offers-grassroots-solution-to-air-pollution-and-global-warming/

Car Parks 2.0 - asphalt parking lots transformed into gardens and charging terminals for electric vehicles
https://www.studionab.fr/car-park-2-0
https://inhabitat.com/studio-nab-wants-to-rehab-parking-lots-into-energy-producing-urban-gardens/
Editorial Comment: Car Parks 3.0 said to be coming soon from Studio NAB

Smart Forest City for Cancun, Mexico "conceived to be completely food and energy self-sufficient"
https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/project/smart-forest-city-cancun/
https://inhabitat.com/first-smart-forest-city-in-mexico-will-be-100-food-and-energy-self-sufficient/

LIFE Hamburg, a new energy self-sufficient educational campus that will “reinvent learning” for 1,600 students scheduled to open 2023, the solar-powered sustainable building will feature a carbon dioxide-absorbing green facade and an organic rooftop garden
https://www.l-a-v-a.net/projects/life-hamburg/
https://inhabitat.com/lava-designs-carbon-neutral-life-hamburg-with-an-edible-green-roof/

Bangkok plans for miles of greenways
https://shmadesigns.com/work/10-kilometers/
https://inhabitat.com/shmas-bangkok-green-link-wants-to-add-over-30-miles-of-greenways-to-bangkok/

Largest green wall in Europe will absorb 8 tons of pollution per year
https://www.sheppardrobson.com/architecture/view/citicape-house
https://www.dezeen.com/2019/11/11/citicape-house-green-wall-architecture-sheppard-robson/
https://inhabitat.com/the-largest-green-wall-in-europe-will-absorb-8-tons-of-air-pollution-per-year/

Detroit’s urban agrihood
https://theheartysoul.com/first-sustainable-urban-agrihood/

Underground farm in Liverpool, UK
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/26/farming-of-the-future-rise-of-hydroponic-food-labs-thomas-myers
NB:  As long as it doesn’t displace the Cavern Club 

Pittsburgh’s urban gardens and gentrification
https://civileats.com/2019/12/06/pittsburgh-grows-urban-gardens-in-the-fight-against-gentrification/

Half of new indoor growers have no ag experience
http://www.fruitnet.com/fpj/article/180677/half-of-new-indoor-growers-have-no-ag-experience
Editorial Comment:  This is a result of treating everything as an Internet start-up in the go-goingest of the Tech Boom years and the boom/bust cycle of the capitalistic structure of our present market system.

Sherpa Light - a tunable light to grow anything
https://www.sherpaspace.co.kr/sherpa-light
https://www.sherpaspace.co.kr
https://inhabitat.com/sherpa-light-for-indoor-farming-wins-ces-2020-innovation-award/

Growing food in a refugee camp - mattresses as a grow medium
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-51466978/how-mattresses-could-solve-hunger