KEEP ON THE GRASS:

AN EDIBLE URBAN LANDSCAPE?

Researching and testing the adaptation of

social and physical space in contemporary cities

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

Walworth Garden Farm
Bee hives architecture
Unité

The Beehive Metaphor, Juan Antonio Ramírez

 Food Growing examples
Planned space

Growing Communities East London

Used space

Guinness Trust March - July

 Non-architects as
contributors
Walmart to School
Railways to Mushroom
Rooftop to Salads The Resident

The Pedestrian
 Urban Agriculture (UA)
Glossary and wider context
This assumption is supported by
historical and contemporary
reality
It is linked to environmental
concerns such as Greenhouse
Gas emissions (GHG) & social
concerns such as access to
fresh food
Establishing Urban
Agriculture enables and
requires changes of behavior
& urban landscape
There is little experience or knowledge about the
design, planning and legacy
Space use and its conflict relative to food urban spaces
Definitions
We will assume Urban Agriculture “An industry that produces and
is “good” and has a relationship to markets food and fuel, largely in
Rural Agriculture response to the daily demand of
consumers within a town, city or
metropolis;
on land and water dispersed
throughout the urban and
peri-urban metropolis. Applying
intensive production methods,
Integrating using and reusing natural
resources and urban waste, to
yield a
Food Gardening diversity of crops and livestock.”
(UNDP, 1996, p3)
Into cities
A critical Language:
The concept of
Embodied
Desire in addressing the
role of user in shaping
Adapting
Physical
Space
The Elephant SE1
Study Area: 191 ha. Elephant and Castle, South London

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

The Elephant SE1

Howmuchfoodcan

Theelephant grow

Onhorizontal

openspace?
Thesis
Mapping,
Visual Analysis Photography
& Site Visits
(SimilartoPOE)

191hatest site SPENT A LONG TIME ON- SITE

Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

June 2009
Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University
11
Sympathetic to site
Retro fit food to site: Sympathetic to current use

Before After
Comparative study with GLA and Southwark Council data

June 2009
Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University
12
Results
Primary Results (3 locations)
(Don’t rely on remote sensed data)

27% of weekly vegetable requirements for the 16,245 residents

June 2009
Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University
13
PhD Research: 25 ha site

East Croydon Metropolitan Centre as an example of the

potential for growing food closer to the urban consumer

Manhattan of the South

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

Results

Urban spaces can be given value when

translated into a food producing landscape

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

 From Gardening to Agriculture
Private Community/Economic Economic
Food Gardening Market Gardening UA

UA area = 7.25ha

Rural
25ha
Global

High Density Lower Density

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

 Adapting
Social Space
From Gardening to Agriculture
Food Gardening Market Gardening UA

Harvest Daily Short Seasonal Long seasonal

Destination Home use Subsistence Economic
Proximity Close to Home 1-3km 3km onwards
GHG Non-Low GHG Low GHG Low to High GHG
Spatial Horizontal/Vertical Horizontal/Vertical Horizontal
Gender Family / individual Mixed Non Specific
Crop Fresh Fruit/Veg Fruit/ Veg/Staples Staples

High Density Lower Density

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

25 ha: The Propinquity of Food
“the state of being close to something”

Private/Economic

Cooperative
Community

Personal/Private

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

 Non-architects as contributors: Post Occupancy Evaluation

Design of New Physical Space

High Potential Low Potential

Annual Annual

Change Change

Adaption of existing Physical & Social Space

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University
Non-architects as contributors: Post Occupancy Evaluation

Fritz Haeg
Railways to Mushroom

The Resident

Rooftop to Salads

The Pedestrian
 The complexities of GHG
N2O has 310 times and CH4 has 21 times the global warming potential of CO2

 Can we assume local is “better”?

1km by car for shopping equals 3400km by boat
 Total localisation versus diet change?
Reduction in Red meat lowers GHG emissions
 Life Cycle Analysis
Home refrigeration uses more than any other process in whole food chain
 Canning Freezing or fresh?
Canned uses 35% less than freezing. Fresh food requires home refrigeration and subject to waste
 Organic versus Conventional
Tradeoffs between energy-intensive inputs and relative yields,
 New Zealand Versus Germany
NZ apples are 25% more efficient than Germany
food loss rate at the farm level is 15-35%
www.eesi.org/files/foodwaste_factsheet_finaldraft_040609_0.pd

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

 Permanency or Crisis: Adapting Social Space
London 1799 Cuba 1990s
UA as “special period”
One fifth market gardens
South Africa
“…So the gardener proceeds, never allowing his
ground to remain idle for a single day… the UA as apartheid
enormous expense of manure and labour will be
more than repaid by the enormous returns per
acre per annum.” Dig for Victory
“Fulham has often been adduced as an example
of the wonderful completeness of the arrangement UA as austerity
for supply of London with vegetables”

UK 21st Century
Climate Crunch?
Recycling of urban waste as organic energy
Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University
 Gardening versus farmland 1940-45

 Dig for Victory report

 14% of “average” garden used for food growing
 10 - 12 houses per acre
 Output same as total farmland replaced
 Saving in distribution cost

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

 Testing the
Adaptation of
Social Space
Croydon: Garden in the sky

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

The Edible Map: Visualising Scale

YOU ARE HUNGRY: AN EDIBLE MAP OF SURREY STREET

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

Psychogeographical Edible Tour

25 ha site

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

Further work: Adapting everyday life for UA
Testing social adaptation of space

Home Unit Shopping/ Adaptation?

harvesting
Growing food as part of
everyday life

Central Croydon

Mikey Tomkins: Centre for Research and Development Brighton University

Food Gardening to Urban Agriculture

• Giving atomised green space a value

• Historically: recycling of urban waste
essential as an input
• UA is about spade and plough
• Proximity of people to space
• Network across landscape
• Gender/culture/diet
• Shopping habits
• Daily obligations
• Change in planning laws
• Willingness to change
• Larger back drop of climate crunch and
food security Culture
• Adaption of Architectural and Urban
Design Practices