New skills, new knowledge for urban agroecosystems

In the aftermath of the Covid health crisis—and as our metropolises brushed up against the limits of functioning “under perfusion” (decoupling between cities and their agricultural and food-producing hinterlands, proliferation of complex supply chains increasing the risk of failure and food insecurity in the face of climate and geopolitical disruption)—I began a dialogue with Franck Chevallier, an agroecology trainer, about the importance of broadening the scope of the “urban” project to include human settlements as a whole, from housing to agriculture. Since then, we’ve been steering the agency’s projects in this direction, working together on urban agroecosystems in Rungis and Villejuif.

In Villejuif, we are exploring possible synergies between inhabited neighborhoods and productive farms, through the implementation of a circular metabolism—an early model of a resilient city that rethinks its functions and its relationship to nature and ecology. To put this into practice, we are moving forward on several fronts, aided by experts and tailored partnerships. The collection of ultra-local knowledge on the agro-pedological and hydrological characteristics of the environments is accompanied by experimentation with test crops—currently underway with AgroParisTech and the Tesora engineering firm—to observe the impact of soil types and pollution levels on the vegetables produced. These findings are intended to refine the distribution of bio-intensive market gardening and their integration into an agroforestry system, designed with Franck Chevallier, who is also a farmer and agricultural designer, to mitigate the effects of climate change. We are working with Aneco association on strategies for recycling/composting yellow, grey, and black water from urban housing to convert them into resources for soil amendment, fertilization, and irrigation. Scientific literature analyses conducted by students and researchers from Polytech Sorbonne help to clarify the advantages and limitations of various solutions. These are all new areas to explore for urban planners—field investigations to be carried out and specialized knowledge to be integrated in support of a bold goal: the repair and resilient future of urban territories.

The convergence of agroecology and urban planning is embodied in recognizing the urban and peri-urban agricultural territory as a single ecosystem; in the consideration of all resources, their complexity and diversity; in attention to the details where nothing is lost and everything is transformed in a fertile cycle. Urban and agricultural design weaves hyper-local connections, in service of soil restoration and fertilization and biodiversity, in a context of climate change and energy crisis.