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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/agrihoods-neighborhoods-built-around-farms/>
"Picture the bucolic little town of a fairy tale. At its core stand medieval
buildings, a square where folks hawk their goods and perhaps a well to provide
water. Beyond the defensive wall radiate agricultural fields where people toil
to bring grains, fruits and vegetables to market.
Invert that for modern times and you’ve got the idea behind “agrihoods,”
communities designed around a central farm. Like a garden in a big city,
agrihoods promise to boost food security, reduce temperatures, capture
rainwater and increase biodiversity. As climate change intensifies heat,
flooding and pressure on food systems, agrihoods could be a way to make urban
living more resilient — not just more picturesque.
“Developers have a hard time offering open space, because they would like to
build more housing,” said Vincent Mudd, a partner at the architectural firm
Steinberg Hart, which designs agrihoods. “One of the few ways to kind of bridge
that gap is to be able to use active open space that actually generates
commerce.”
On paper, an agrihood is a simple concept: A working farm surrounded by single-
or multifamily housing. Steinberg Hart recently finished two of them in
California — one in Santa Clara and another, called Fox Point Farms, in
Encinitas. The former, south of San Francisco, features townhouses, market-rate
units and affordable housing, plus a community center and retail shops. The
latter, north of San Diego, adds a farm-to-table restaurant, an event venue and
a grocery store, but its housing is primarily for sale instead of rent. “Two
different housing programs for two different communities, but built around the
sustainability of urban farming,” Mudd said.
While these projects are in relatively affluent areas, Mudd said agrihoods can
be built nearly anywhere — though it might require tweaks to zoning rules.
“Almost every city has the ability to make that zoning change,” Mudd said,
“because it retains commerce, preserves jobs, generates sales tax income from
retail and provides mixed-income, attainable housing.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
