This book demonstrates how agriculture can play a determining role in integrated, climate-optimised urban development. Agriculture within urban growth centres today is more than an economic or social left-over or a niche practice. It is instead a complex system that offers multiple potentials for interaction with the urban system. Urban open space and agriculture can be linked to a productive green infrastructure - this forms new urban-rural linkages in the urbanizing region and helps shape the city. But in order to do this, agriculture has to be seen as an integral part of the urban fabric and it has to be put on the local agenda. Urban Agriculture for Growing City Regions takes the example of Casablanca, one of the fastest growing cities in North Africa, to investigate this approach. The creation of synergies between the urban and rural in an emerging megacity is demonstrated through pilot projects, design solutions, and multifunctional modules. These synergies assure greater resource efficiency; particularly regarding the use and reuse of water, and they strengthen regional food security and the social integration of multiple spheres. A transdisciplinary research approach brings together different scientific disciplines and local actors into a process of integrated knowledge production. The book will have a long lasting legacy and is essential reading for researchers, planners, practitioners and policy makers who are working on urban development and urban agricultural strategies.

This book demonstrates how agriculture can play a determining role in integrated, climate-optimised urban development. Agriculture within urban growth centres today is more than an economic or social left-over or a niche practice. It is instead a complex system that offers multiple potentials for interaction with the urban system. Urban open space and agriculture can be linked to a productive green infrastructure - this forms new urban-rural linkages in the urbanizing region and helps shape the city. But in order to do this, agriculture has to be seen as an integral part of the urban fabric and it has to be put on the local agenda. Urban Agriculture for Growing City Regions takes the example of Casablanca, one of the fastest growing cities in North Africa, to investigate this approach. The creation of synergies between the urban and rural in an emerging megacity is demonstrated through pilot projects, design solutions, and multifunctional modules. These synergies assure greater resource efficiency; particularly regarding the use and reuse of water, and they strengthen regional food security and the social integration of multiple spheres. A transdisciplinary research approach brings together different scientific disciplines and local actors into a process of integrated knowledge production. The book will have a long lasting legacy and is essential reading for researchers, planners, practitioners and policy makers who are working on urban development and urban agricultural strategies.

Urban Design Methods is a manual for reconciling contemporary approaches with increasingly complex demands in the shaping of urban living spaces. Architects and landscape architects, as well as city, regional, and landscape planners, often find that they are unable to do modern projects justice with their specialist skills alone. Cooperative approaches are needed to deal with both the complexity of raising questions and the growing number of affected parties who need to be involved. Urban design - understood as an inter- and transdisciplinary field at the interface of architecture, city and regional planning, landscape architecture, sociology, and the diverse stakeholders involved in any project - requires a compendium of adaptable methods to dissolve the boundaries between theory and praxis and between natural and social systems. For the first time, this book collects a broad spectrum of methods intended to support urban designers in deciphering the contexts in which they work, and help them attain a greater individual professional understanding. It clearly outlines the range of challenges and the constantly evolving areas of activity.

Seit ihren AnfAngen war die stAdtebauliche Planung auf Wachstum angelegt. Dieses Wachstum wird es nicht mehr geben. Wie die Bundesrepublik insgesamt werden auch die StAdte zunehmend an BevAlkerung verlieren. LeerstAnde, BaulA1/4cken, grAAere Brachen werden tief in das bestehende StadtgefA1/4ge eingreifen. Die StAdte mA1/4ssen in der Tat "umgebaut" werden, aber wie? Im vorliegenden Band untersuchen namhafte Fachleute aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen die Rahmenbedingungen, die in Zukunft die Stadtentwicklung prAgen werden. AnsAtze fA1/4r neue Strukturkonzepte und Planungsstrategien werden vorgestellt. Dabei kommt den zunehmenden FreirAumen besondere Bedeutung zu, nicht als "Ersatz" fA1/4r Gebautes, sondern als eigenstAndiges Strukturelement, das den StAdten eine neue QualitAt verleiht.

Eine PflichtlektA1/4re fA1/4r alle, die fA1/4r die Zukunft der StAdte auf realistischer Basis nach neuen stadtrAumlichen Konzepten suchen.