Building blocks for an agroecological urbanism – News – Architecture Workroom Brussels

Screenshot 'Building an Agroecological Urbanism'. 2023

Farmers and urban planners do not encounter one another enough and lack mutual understanding. However, agroecological farmers can play a key role in today's urban landscape, which is in the throes of transformation. How can these two apparent opposites move towards a shared agenda?

'Building an Agroecological Urbanism' calls on farmers and urban planners to develop shared strategies around urban food production.

The online platform is based on a series of conversation stoppers, which demonstrate where the dialogue between farmers and urban planners often falters. We counter these misconceptions with conversation starters: insights and practical examples that reveal the resulting impact when the two sectors do dare give each other space. Lastly, a series of building blocks provides guidance on forms of cooperation: projects and practices to be developed, which require collaboration between farmers and urban planners, to give substance to agroecological urbanism.

The platform was built within the context of the international research collaboration ‘Urbanising in Place’. The research project focused on innovative agricultural and food growing practices in four urban contexts: Rosario, Riga, London and Brussels.

AWB was jointly responsible for creating the online resource (together with Michiel Dehaene and Chiara Tornaghi), as well as the research on the Brussels context. We found that the focus in Brussels should be on an alliance of key individuals who facilitate making an agroecological infrastructure operational.

The resource has been published and can be found through this link.

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Since 2010, Architecture Workroom Brussels has focused on the future of our living environment. The organisation began as a safe haven to address the link between space and societal transitions, aimed at fostering a futureproof design practice, commissioning and building culture.

It has now become evident that the transformation of our streets, neighbourhoods, and landscapes is both a prerequisite and a lever for achieving societal goals in synergy. Yet we observe that these transformations remain difficult to imagine and implement. They span so many sectors and involve so many actors that responsibility falls on everyone, and therefore, ultimately, on no one.

That is why we make it our mission to create the space that connects them. And with this refined mission comes a new name: WORKROOM, House for transformation. WORKROOM is the shared space where the future of our living environment is not only imagined but also organised.

We are currently taking the lead on three mission-driven transformations:

SOCIETAL INCUBATORS - By 2030, stakeholders from the youth, culture, sports, care and education sectors will join forces to create renewed societal spaces that tackle loneliness and counteract the fragmentation and pressure on public infrastructure.
FOSSIL-FREE NEIGHBOURHOODS - By 2030, at least ten neighbourhoods will be underway with the transition to fossil-free energy in an inclusive and affordable way, with a view to completely phase-out fossil fuels by 2040.
SPONGE LANDSCAPES - By 2030, we will have achieved our water, agriculture and nature goals through a single, coherent approach at catchment area level, in which strong regional coalitions collectively enhance the landscape's sponge capacity.

To make these transformations a reality, WORKROOM works shoulder to shoulder with pioneering designers, local authorities, organisations and businesses, governments, knowledge institutions and impact investors.

Through co-creative design, we imagine shared pathways to the future in exhibitions, publications, innovation programmes and public programmes. These are the workrooms where we connect the actors capable of realising these transformations. From there, we design shared ownership and the organisational, funding and policy models that lead to real change.

The name is simpler. The stakes are higher. WORKROOM is the shared space where we tackle the social and spatial transformations that no one can achieve alone. In an era of polarisation, compartmentalisation and instability, that is perhaps the most radical thing we can do.