The Growing City

Sammanfattning: London is a large city, yet it’s almost entirely dependent on food from outside the city. The city imports 80 percent of its food, and much of it from abroad. Food is being transported longer and longer distances and these food miles (from producer to consumer) comes with great concerns about local and global sustainability. Heavy road freight daily congests and pollute the inner city of London as well as the needs just get more for every day. The inner city people, and especially children, growing up in an urban environment loose the knowledge or never get it of from where and how crops grow. London’s population is growing fast and vacant land is hard to find, therefore ineffective built up areas or brownfield land need to be re-developed so the city can grow within it’s boarders. Greenwich peninsula, situated in south-east London, is today a scattered place with large brownfield areas and a motorway cutting the peninsula in two. However, it’s also home to the Millennium dome, close contact to the Thames river and with public transport as the underground. The thesis investigate how this land can be transformed into a lively neighbourhood that solves more than just London’s need for housing: Urban farming on rooftops and courtyards and a large scale food production in a converted former industrial building will work as a pilot project for a new sustainable way of living in London. The growing city will aim to be an including place with a strong community as well raise the general knowledge of how and what food comes from to Londoners mind.