Encouraging more people to use existing city farms, community gardens and allotments isn’t the only way to increase local food production.
When David Barrie’s team of designers chose Middlesbrough as the location for the inaugural Urban Farming project, they were already well aware of the town’s numerous allotment sites.
‘We wanted to find a way to bring that expertise and passion for growing food out of the allotment and into the public space,’ explains Nina Belk, of service design consultancy Zest Innovation.
The team explored new ways to make use of the urban landscape by growing fruit and vegetables in unusual places.
‘Like a lot of postindustrial towns and cities, Middlesbrough has plenty of surplus land,’ says Barrie. ‘A certain proportion of that can be redeveloped for commercial use, but there is still a lot of surplus space.’
To identify possible sites for cultivation, the design team consulted schools, community groups, voluntary organisations and public health bodies, as well as the local authorities.
These consultations recruited more than 1,000 people to the project, all of whom were keen to grow their own fruit and vegetables in specially installed containers around the town.
The containers ranged in size from window boxes for individuals and small organisations to four square metre bins looked after by schools, community centres and other large groups.
Middlesbrough Council was a key partner in the project, providing essential project management, co-ordinating support and digging up part of the town’s main parks so that the land could be used for growing crops.
The council’s Parks Department tended this extensive urban farming area, while other strands of the project were led and delivered by local NGO Groundwork South Tees, the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) and more than 60 community groups, schools, social care and Third Sector organisations in the town.
Expert advice
To help ensure a successful harvest, Middlesbrough’s first generation of urban farmers received free support and advice throughout the project from local horticulturalists, allotment growers, farmers and food producers.
The project also called on local chefs to help orchestrate a series of Kitchen Playground events, in which people prepared, cooked and ate dishes based on the raw ingredients they had grown.
Meal For Middlesbrough
In September 2007 Middlesbrough’s first urban crop was harvested for a banquet in the town’s main square.
Participants in the project created the menu themselves using their own fruit and vegetables. Local producers also provided meat and vegetables to supplement the meal, which was eaten in the open air.
The Middlesbrough Town Meal, officially opened by Mayor Ray Mallon, drew 8,500 people for an afternoon of food-related entertainment and activities. The meal itself fed 2,500 people.
Visualisation
To help the local council visualise the scale and potential of the Urban Farming project, designers Andre viljoen and Katrina Bohn were commissioned to create a map of Middlesbrough’s edible landscape, identifying 260 food growing sites across the town.
Visualising design proposals in this way is a useful tool for designers when communicating ideas to stakeholders, clients and the wider public.
The map shows the location of existing containers and urban farming plots, as well as areas where food growing could be extended in future.