Cultivating new meaning in the urban landscape: increasing food security and social capital through urban ecology

Urban Farm DB summary

A landscape architecture study centered on Sunnyside, Pretoria, South Africa, using an abandoned stretch of land along the Walker Spruit as a case study to test the hypothesis that allotment-style community gardening designed around urban ecology can increase food security and social capital. It examines Guerrilla Gardening and allotment cultures in Britain, Canada, and Switzerland, and applies the green infrastructure concept of a "Continuous Productive Urban Landscape," concluding that allotment culture and permaculture can be ways of reconnecting people with urban nature. It proposes a "three natures" design concept intended to unite the neighboring Clydesdale and Sunnyside East areas. The work is a design proposal and case study rather than a study with measured outcome data.