Everyday Creativity – Community Gardens at Tempelhof Airport in Winter

A recent winter walk at the former airfield of Tempelhof Airport in Berlin also took me to the Allmede-Kontor plot where community gardens are located between the former runways. At the snow-covered airfield urban garding obviously has come to a halt. But the creatively and tenderly assembled nests of the community gardeners wait to be re-cultivated in spring, which is hopefully soon to come.

Meanwhile I’d like to share these pictures as examples of everyday creativity. These spaces of vernacular creativity are examples that emphasise the role for non-economic and non-productive values and practices in shaping processes of urban creativity. They foster a rethinking of the ‘Creative Class’, a terminology that usually does not encompass these kinds of spaces who are created by local residents of any classes. 

Urban Gardening in St Petersburg, Russia

Environmental activism in post-soviet Russia used to be the country’s most dynamic and effective forms of social activism. In contemporary Russia, however, activists face severe obstacles in promoting green issues. The Saint Petersburg Urban Gardening Club, founded as early as 1993, is still struggling with the authorities’ acknowledgments of its important work.  

St Petersburg rooftop.Image source.

URBAN OMNIBUS

... is online finally.

Urban Omnibus is an online project of the Architectural League that explores the relationship between design and New York City's physical environment: revealing the choices shaping the city, encouraging conversation, inspiring innovation.

It already features a walk through nyc with Richard Sennet or has some articles in the 'act local' section about urban farming.

URBAN FOOD PRODUCTION

Benedetta Garguilo :: Fish Faming

Here are two projects of last year's AA inter3 studio. Students were asked: Can extremes of programmatic effectiveness blend with the fragility of human habitat? Can food production be integrated into the fabric of the City?
Benedetta Garguilo dealt with fish farming in central london while Soonil Kim designed the King's Vineyard London
Soonil Kim :: Vineyard


Thanks to pruned for the hint


related posts:
on urban agriculture here, here and here and on aqua-culture here and here

JUST ANOTHER HYDRO VISION

near-shore aqua-culture, Image by N.E.E.D

The winning entry from the South Street Seaport - Re-envisioning the Urban Edge competition is "an aquaculture-driven floating park, inlaid with combinational modules of public indoor programs." by N.E.E.D.
Imagesby N.E.E.D
"South Street Seaport," writes N.E.E.D., "has always been closely connected with infrastructural industry of the city. Being a port and a market for fish, it actively switched its urban structure according to development of transportation modes and storing methods of goods. To continue this historical trajectory of being a highly responsive urban district, the project proposes a fish farm(works), where the future of aquaculture actuates the next transformation phase of the area."Imagesby N.E.E.D
Thanks to pruned and Bustler for the images.

related posts:
on urban agriculture here, here and here and recently on aqua-culture

postscript URBAN FLORA

subtle subversive urban seeding. Have a look at: Bloom: Peddling Green

The Bloom device is meant to be a subversive and inspirational tool for our concrete jungles. Similar to the tuft of a dandelion as the wind carries the seedling, we propose a way of dispersing seedlings with bubbles and bicycling.

related: Urban Flora's High Speed Evolution, Urban Agriculture

COW URBANISM

Do you recognize these images from previous posts on synchronicity?
Just found another cow-this time in Liverpool. The Udder Way is a project back from 2005 also featured at the shrinking cities interventions exhibition.
On the 18th July 2005, in the early hours of the morning, 5cows, 5 calves, 3 stockmen and a milking parlour arrived in Toxteth, Liverpool and remained for 9 days.
What do you think you can gain out of a piece of cow dung? Go for the Udder Way's product site.
There you'll find this:

Cow dung - BBQ briquettes for all exterior cooking
Anti wrinkle agent - Skin care- 100%organic cow manureFor strong teeth and fresh breath - Udder tooth polish - 100%organic cow manure ash

FARMADELPHIA

Front Studio's FARMADELPHIA proposes to transform the urban environment by introducing bucolic farmlands into
the city's urban fabric. Farmadelphia adopts the extensive sprawl of overgrown lots and vacant buildings as a source of inspiration while it fortifies and reinforces the ongoing green legacy of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia would become an 'edible landscape', with vast crop fields, and free roaming farm animals.The project would also address – or is intended to address – "the rehabilitation of the existing city fabric by proposing ideas for vacant buildings that would allow the present-day character to remain while creating new uses."Whole sections of the city would be deliberately cultivated. Or, from a slightly different perspective, it's the controlled re-wilding of the city.Some appropriate crops for the proposed agricultural stabilization of the city might include the following, the architects suggest:

—start with low maintenance, easy to grow, and profiting crops; consider perennial crops such as asparagus, shallots, garlic and herb varieties
—other crops include shade tolerant, easy to grow kale, sweet potatoes, lettuce
—other crops that do well in Philadelphia climate: collard greens, broccoli, mustard greens, corn, raspberry bushes
Those plants, in particular, would form a biosystem that could help push the city onto a seven year agricultural plan – after which this newly implanted ecosystem would level off, forming something like a cultivated permaculture.
find out more on Front Studio's website or see the panels here

Related posts: Urban Agriculture

URBAN AGRICULTURE

urban agriculture, urban farming, vertical farming, subterranean farming, guerrilla farming - according to my recent www-cruises it appears that this issue is coming back to discussion. Here is a list of links:

Subterranean Farms of Tokyo by pruned
A subterranean farm cultivated inside a former bank vault beneath a high rise building in one of Tokyo's business districts. Tomatoes, rice, lettuces, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables, as well as flowers and herbs, are grown in an area covering almost a square kilometer.


Watch out for an Urban Farm for PS1 posted by Life Without Buildings or again from pruned with A Farm Grows in Queens
A proposal by Work Architecture that won this year's Young Architects Program at the P.S. 1 Contemporary Arts Center in Long Island City, Queens.
The eight-year-old competition calls for creating an outdoor social space for dancing and drinking in the summer months.

To organize the space Dan Wood and Amale Andraos, the husband-and-wife duo behind Work Architecture, chose heavy cardboard tubes in part because of the shadows they would cast and because of their resilience. Columns will be bolted together to form a span that rises on either side of a pool like a large V.

Each tube will play its own role. Some will contain plantings on dirt shelves equipped with liner bags to prevent leakage.

There is a fabric tube that people can enter through a curtain where you can 'hide' from the party.

for guerrilla gardening follow this link.

for Vertical Farming go to The Vertical Farm Project or watch this project of Atelier SOA Architectes Paris

Roof Farming in London (via BLDG BLOG)

finally Wikipedia's Urban Agriculture and an article about Food Less Travelled

Posts on farming in Philadelphia and on Algae harvesting in San Francisco will be featured soon, so stay tuned