the future of Urban Gardening, June 2013

Club of Amsterdam

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This event is in collaboration with the Museum Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis

Urban Gardening, Urban Farming or Urban Agriculture is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around a village, town, or city. Urban agriculture can also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agroforestry, and horticulture. These activities also occur in peri-urban areas as well.

Wouter Schik, Landscape architect, Arcadis
Creating tomorrows green livable cities

What meaning has urban green space in a world that becomes ever more virtual? Cities grow and densify, making green space suffer. Less green space is less maintenance costs, which in a time of crisis is seen as a blessing. Unfortunately in the new metropolises and especially with climate change, green space is more important than ever. New technologies create new green possibilities: from roof top parks to vertical gardens. Hypes like urban gardening deliver new incentives. But how useful is that really? More green space doesn’t necessarily create better places. However using smart analyses, creativity and community involvement, we are now learning how to create the green livable city of the future.

Rachelle Eerhart, Project leader, IVN – Institute for Nature education & sustainability
Urban farming: getting back in touch with our food

Eating is one of our most intimate connections with nature, together with air, light and water food keeps us alive. But even though we perform this intimate act at least three times a day, we do not know much about food anymore. The recent trend of urban farming helps us to rebuild this awareness: growing food creates respect for farmers & knowing food teaches us about our connection to nature.

Vincent Kuypers, director of theSolidGROUNDS, knowledge brokers for green economy
Parksupermarket

Urban farming is not only fun, but serious business. Our concept is called Parksupermarket. In times of crisis urban agriculture pops up as a smart solution for (temporary) urban wasteland. However with nearly 80% of people living in cities – and even more in metropolitan regions, food production and distribution in blue-green metropolitan belts will become permanent.

The urban farmer is a professional in combining and harvesting both new ideas and old traditions. Parksupermarket is a production, trading and innovation centre, that can occupy urban green spaces,just as well as water reservoirs and energy production centres. Most of all it is a place to recreate and experience food and farming. It will give new permanent meaning to anonymus green spaces and or urban wasteland.

Tom Bosschaert, Founder & Director, Except Integrated Sustainability
Urban farming as green engine for urban redevelopment

Our cities and neighborhoods are in dire need of adaptation to the new realities of today. How will we fix our energy flows, deal with our waste streams, transform existing buildings, and make healthy and exciting places to live at the same time? How can we move from the old industrial model to a circular economy efficiently?

Urban agriculture is one of the key solutions in this challenge, if used as a catalyst to the transformation of our living environments.

Presentations

Wouter Schik, Landscape architect, Arcadis
Creating tomorrows green livable cities

Rachelle Eerhart, Project leader, IVN – Institute for Nature education & sustainability
Urban farming: getting back in touch with our food

Vincent Kuypers, director of theSolidGROUNDS, knowledge brokers for green economy
Parksupermarket

Tom Bosschaert, Founder & Director, Except Integrated Sustainability
Articles
Resources

Articles

Freija Van Duijne, futurist, trendwatchter and strategist at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands
Scenarios for the future of urban farming

19:00 – 20:00
Introduction by our Moderator Tarik Yousif, Presenter at the Dutch public broadcaster NTR

Part I

Wouter Schik, Landscape architect, Arcadis
Creating tomorrows green livable cities

Rachelle Eerhart, Project leader, IVN – Institute for Nature education & sustainability
Urban farming: getting back in touch with our food

Vincent Kuypers, director of theSolidGROUNDS, knowledge brokers for green economy
Parksupermarket

Tom Bosschaert, Founder & Director, Except Integrated Sustainability
Urban farming as green engine for urban redevelopment

20:15 – 20:45
Coffee break with drinks and snacks.

20:45 – 21:15
Part II

Open discussion

Wouter Schik
Landscape architect, Arcadis

Wouter Schik is a landscape architect and specialist sustainable development at ARCADIS. He is also the vice president of the Committee for Sustainable Urban Development, an initiative of the Netherlands Association for Landscape Architecture (NVTL), and the Dutch professional association for urban planners and urban designers (BSNP). Wouter Schik is co-author of the Committees book: Sustainable Urban Design, the next step, Blauwdruk publishers 2010. Recently he is involved in European and National projects regarding the use of green and blue interventions in cities regarding climate change.
www.arcadis.com
www.ws-coaching.nl

Rachelle Eerhart
Project leader, IVN – Institute for Nature education & sustainability

Rachelle Eerhart is project leader at IVN – Institute for Nature education & sustainability, she is the coordinator of ‘Edible Park’ an urban farming & art project in The Hague and she also initiated Eetbaar Den Haag, an informal platform for ‘local foodies’. Her own vegetable garden in the centre of The Hague changed her life and motivated her to work on themes like nature & health, sustainable food, green neighborhoods and urban farming.
http://ivn.nl

Vincent Kuypers
Director of theSolidGROUNDS, knowledge brokers for green economy

Vincent Kuypers is director of theSolidGROUNDS – knowledge brokers Green economy and has been working until recent as a senior researcher at Alterra, Wageningen University knowledge centre for Green Space since 2002 on the subjects Water and Urban renewal.
Before 2002 he was active as advisor in several cities in Holland and abroad on sustainable urban development, regarding ecology, landscaping, water systems, maintenance and design for spatial quality since 1986, after graduating as a biologist from Amsterdam University.
As urban ecologist and knowledge broker he is now active as leader or co-leader in interactive integrated and multidisciplinary transition programmes and projects such as Schiphol theGROUNDS, Green deal Miscanthus, Waterbergen ZuidAs, Reinhaven Rotterdam, Future Cities Arnhem Nijmegen. Besides – and within these programs – he operates as a consultant in several regional spatial developments all over the world.

Recent relevant publications as author and co-author – involving landscape interventions: Reis naar Parijs by CO2-OO at ABC Haarlem (2013), Miscanthus cycle at Schiphol (2011-2012), theGROUNDS incubator at Schiphol (2010-2012), Sea Farm at ARCAM Amsterdam (2012), Parksupermarket at STROOM Den Haag (2009-2011), Lavender Hill at Coentunnel Amsterdam (2010), the Sand engine Delfland Coast (2010), Future Cities in region Arnhem Nijmegen (Interreg IVB, 2008-2013), Cradle to Cradle in area development (2009), New Public-Private coalitions (2008), Climate Change and the City (ministry VROM, 2008), Nature development Coast of Delfland (ministry V&W, HH Delfland, 2007), Green for Air (ministry LNV, 2007), The process of building a Nature bridge at Crailoo (Gooisch Natuurreservaat, 2006), PURE planning with water (Interreg IIIB, 2006), Holle Volle Dijk (Building with Water, 2006), WiHCC a framework for water in historic city centres (Interreg IIIB, 2005), Perron H2O (Utrecht Central Station Environment, 2005 & 2007), Junglebus (NAI Architecture biennale Rotterdam, 2004)

Tom Bosschaert
Founder & Director, Except Integrated Sustainability

Tom Bosschaert founded Except Integrated Sustainability in 1999, an innovation and strategy agency. With Except, Tom works on solutions we need today to convert our cities, companies, government and industry to resilient, healthy and exciting places. At Except, 30 experts in science, engineering, business, and design work together in innovation-labs. They combine experience from working in 15 countries on subjects as diverse as energy systems, policy, agriculture, knowledge management, social redevelopment, industrial symbiosis, CSR and business strategy.

Tom holds a master degree from the Delft University of Technology in Industrial Design Engineering, and a Masters of Architecture from Yale University. He’s adviser and lecturer at a variety of institutions in the Netherlands and abroad.
www.except.nl

Tarik Yousif
Presenter at the Dutch public broadcaster NTR

Tarik Yousif is a multi-tasker in every sense of the word. He is a journalist / presenter working for the Dutch public broadcaster NTR. He is creative director of Creative Urbans a multidisciplinary architectural institute. He is also managing director of AAT, a conceptual development agency on the intersection of arts and technology, and finally he is a much sought after chairman of conferences and debates in which he is a gentle yet disruptive force. Finally, he is the headcoach of his son’s hockey team, to which he dedicates a mere 10 hours per week.
www.tarikyousif.nl