AGROPOLIS

AGROPOLIS l Territorial Agriculture in Petah-Tikva Urban Region

The project proposes a new approach for urban agriculture – a multi-functional infrastructure that will provide most of the demand for fresh-food consumption of the city.

Massive population growth and new agricultural technologies, including the declining political value of agriculture in Israel is leading to a spatial change that is expressed in urban sprawling into the agricultural lands. On the other hand, there are new trends of urban renewal and densification that the project addresses as well.

The project presents a new agricultural urban system in Petah-Tikva, as a case study. This agricultural system relies on three different and complementary typologies.

The first typology is monolayer agriculture, which is based on a continuous connection of green layered zones for orchard trees. This infrastructure could be used as an open space with beneficial use for the public.

The second typology –  technological agriculture (high-tech), requires relatively small areas to produce high yields (at least 100 times greater than those produced in a regular agricultural process); however, with higher rates of investments. Consequently, it should be implemented in urban centers with special emphasis on the connection between the manufacturers and the consumers, as a part of a unique indoor experience that could provide a new landscape based on built environment, machines, infrastructures and commerce.

The third typology is private-community-based agriculture that could provide a small amount of fresh food in the building area, including most of the herbs and vegetables that require a small area of land to grow. This typology will be initiated with the help of both the public and the municipalities in the open spaces of the building site and on the different parts of the building, such as on its walls and roof.

The design will be based on the up-coming changes – the light rail infrastructure and urban renewal zones. It will provide not only fresh produce, but also a new mode of transportation through the city, clean air, water management, a meaningful public space and a cultural landscape inside the densified city.