Protecting, Integrating and Allocating Agriculture in Urban Design and Planning in Luxembourg (AGRI-URBAN DESIGN)

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Jan 2017
Duration in months:

48
Funding:

University of Luxembourg, PhD funding
Principal Investigator(s):

Florian HERTWECK

About

Throughout the course of western urbanisation, agrarian land was marginalised within extended urban areas in the planning trajectories. Consequently, the management of new urban developments disregarded the ecological conditions of its agricultural land. The current challenges of urbanisation, the decline of arable land, food security and the rise in climate uncertainty call for a careful appraisal of alternative development strategies, including productive agricultural land. This research aims to highlight the potentials and challenges of integrating agri-urban typologies into urban design, through a multi-method approach of theoretical, historical and applied research. It traces the history and unpacks the role of agriculture in urban design and planning. It further interrogates the integration and protection of productive agricultural land through a contemporary case study by addressing future urban development in Luxembourg. The contribution of this research is threefold: The first aspect is a cartographic investigation of socio-economic and spatial conditions of the territorial and urban environment. The second contribution explores the limits and potentials of the future development of Luxembourg by introducing agri-urban zoning and typologies within the urban development plan. Finally, the third input relates to the implementation of agri-urban typologies in existing planning instruments.