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Commenced:
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01/12/2012 |
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Submitted:
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04/01/2013 |
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Last updated:
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07/10/2015 |
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Location:
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Stockholm, SE |
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Climate zone:
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Cool Temperate |
Lindö City is a political statement. A manifesto aimed at changing our attitude to the use of agricultural land. A small town of 2000 people. City planning with a permaculture focus.
Project Description
Building communities on monocultural farmland with a heightened level of food security.
What requirements should we demand of new land development in the future? How importantis biodiversity in the different environments that surround us? Is farmland sacred, to be preserved from all development? Should we continue to roll out carpets of suburban sprawl and build densely compacted cities without taking local food needs into account? Our city construction project is based on these considerations.
Farmland currently takes up 100 000 hectares of land in the Stockholm area, and has analmost dogmatically high level of protection. It has been accorded the same value as open landscape such as pastures and other grassy areas. As a result, new building constructionon the cutting edge of the expanding city invariably exploits woodland in order to protect monoculture farmland.
Protecting farmland from development is a knee-jerk attitude inherited from the past when this really was important for the food security of the country. However, things have changed since then. Monoculture agriculture currently practiced today is a very fragile system, heavily dependent on oil at every level of production and distribution. In view of the long term uncertainty of the oil market, this raises a concern about food security, since we only have 2-3days of food in our supermarkets in the event of a crisis.
In addition, decades of monoculture have drained the soil of its substance, making it unsuitable as a growing medium without constant input of expensive and often imported artificial fertilizers. This also represents a potential threat to the country’s food security.
Helping people produce their own food and/or providing the opportunity to reach local producers is an important part of our concept. There are options available today which produce higher yields per unit/area than conventional methods, while at the same time being independent of volatile international markets. Integrating such growing methods with new housing projects would make building on arable land possible without losing productivity.
Building on farmland would have great advantages in many ways. It would enable the development of a whole new approach to urban construction. Ultimately it has the potential to solve Stockholm’s housing shortage without reducing the green spaces and forested areas that are so vital in peripheral urban environments.
An absolute requirement if one is to be able to motivate building on arable land is that the project increases food production beyond what is possible with conventional farming. We found that the use of high intensity and regenerative systems can multiply the yield of growing areas. In our proposal for 15 hectares of arable land, we built housing for 2000 people while managing to achieve a 50% increase in food productivity over that hitherto produced by conventional agricultural methods in the same area.
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Lindö City
PICTURES! Pictures from the project.