Productive landscape
Relocating a beef farm from the city centre to the city edge, was reason to develop a multi purpose agricultural park in Belgian town Maasmechelen. Together with the farmer and adjacent schools and health care institutions we studied spatial scenarios based on different food attitudes (cow’s garden, urban greenery, wilderness park). Also we designed a new cattle shed and farm yard. Our masterplan meets all practical requirements of beef farming and in addition it takes up a wider program of social needs. Thus we make food production visible again in the urban environment, discarding arcadian cliches.
Productive landscape was a program of the Flemish Government Architect to assess the impact of new agricultural models. Circular Landscapes was asked to work out a pilot on ‘agricultural parks’. This was carried out in cooperation with Wageningen University, Import-Export Architecture (B) and financial advisors SBB (B).