The Nature of Urban Infrastructure: Re-imagining the City as a Continuous Productive Urban Landscape

Abstract

This thesis argues that urban food systems in Canadian cities are essential to healthy communities and a healthy society: Urban agricultural landscapes should be considered a system of infrastructure. Growing food in cities is not a new concept; however, since the Industrial Age, its production has moved further away from the city and, as a result, diminished the cultural landscape that food once provided to human settlements. Using a systems approach, rules and conditions develop how agriculture is integrated at the city, district, and building scales of Halifax. The landscape and built environment are intertwined on the ground, rooftops, and facades of buildings, providing different opportunities to connect socially and environmentally. This thesis does not propose ad-hoc solutions; rather, it represents a model infrastructure network where the concept of “continuously productive urban landscapes” reconnects people with the source of their food and, in doing so, with each other.