Designing for productive urban landscapes. Applying the CPUL concept in Lisbon Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Designing for urban agriculture has been recently acknowledged as a young discipline requiring the attention of architects, urban designers, and planners to promote more sustainable urban cities and continuous productive landscapes. However, how to assess such landscape proposals? How can these be evaluated in terms of their social, ecological, and spatial dimensions? Based on the Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL) tool proposed by Bohn and Viljoen (2005) this presentation exposes a framework for action which could be applied in Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) in order to evaluate the spatiality of its the contemporary food system and promote design solutions to improve it. In order to do so, this paper is organized into three parts. First, it introduces the problem under analysis and the case study. Secondly, it exposes how an analysis of urban agriculture, more precisely along the Lisbon - Vila Franca de Xira axis, contributed to expanding our understanding of the productive dimension of the LMA Food System and interrelates it to a morphological perspective. Finally, it introduces the CPUL concept and a possible application of it within the case study, with impact at the several stages of food system.