The Hanging Gardens of Barcelona is a studio project by Nicola Placella and Magnus Svensson of The Why Project, headed by Winy Maas. The project explores the scale at which urban agriculture would need to occur to make Barcelona at least partially self-reliant for food production. As it turns out, the scale is quite vast.
From the project description “The global food industry is the subject of our research. What impact do our eating habits have and what is our role as urban planners in this context?
The food industry is one of needless transportation and waste. We transport food from every corner of the world and while we produce more than we can consume, we’re still hungry. In our global footprint the food industry is one of the largest industries, dwarfing other industries such as energy production and the building industry. The biggest offender within the food industry is without a doubt the meat sector. Ethical issues aside, the devastating environmental effects of the livestock industry and the sheer amount of land used make us question our western eating habits and look for an alternative. Project challenges the global food industry and explore the possibilities and impossibilities of a localized food chain. Land use and transportation is minimized in the self-sustaining cities of the totalitarian vegan order.
The design project illustrates the massive scale of intervention required to achieve even a small percentage of self-reliancy in food production in Barcelona. To be efficient green must go large scale.” (http://www.thewhyfactory.com/?page=project&project=18&type=future)
Environnemental