Susanne Thomaier

Farming in and on urban buildings: Present practice and specific novelties of Zero-Acreage Farming (ZFarming)

Consideringglobal trendssuchas climatechange and resourcescarcity,a majorchallenge offuturecities willbeto reduce urban footprints. Moreover, cities have to become or remain livable for their inhabitants and offer social and economic opportunities. Thus, reconnecting food production and cities offers promising potential. The diffusion of urban farming reflectsarisingawarenessofhowfoodandfarmingcanshapeourcities.Agrowingnumberofurbanfarmingprojectsexist in and on urban buildings, including open rooftop farms, rooftop greenhouses and indoor farming. These projects are characterized by the non-use of land or acreage for farming activities. We use the term ‘Zero-Acreage Farming’ (ZFarming) to represent these farms. The objective of this paper is to: (1) illustrate and systemize present practices of ZFarming and (2) discuss specific novelties of ZFarming in the wider context of urban agriculture. We analyzed 73 ZFarms in cities of North America, Asia, Australia and Europe using a set of criteria, and developed a typology of ZFarming,complementedbyin-depthinterviewswithpioneersinrooftopfarminginNewYork.Theresultsillustratethat ZFarminggeneratesinnovative practices thatmay contribute to a sustainable urban agriculture. Besides growing food, it produces a range of non-food and non-market goods. It involves new opportunities for resource efficiency, new farming technologies, specific implementation processes and networks, new patterns of food supply and new urban spaces.

Efficiency, Temporal Justice, and the Rhythm of Cities

Each and every city has its own rhythm, to a large extent depending on structural conditions like the prevalent economic base, the composition of the population (age, religion, migrational status, etc.), the development and condition of the infrastructure, the regulatory framework regarding time, but also geographic, locational, historic, and cultural factors. City rhythms are an important factor of local identity but also of the temporal efficiency and temporal justice of cities. Depending on the construction of public transport infrastructure and the provision of services, different parts of the population and different parts of the city do not have equal access to the respective relevant locations. Some have to bear higher temporal costs to get their daily chores done than others, thus producing an uneven distribution of time in the city with respect to social groups and locations. Moreover, the provision of public services is often organised in an inefficient manner leading to (unnecessary) time losses. Hence, the main cause of temporal stress (and higher temporal costs) is not necessarily time shortage but rather an unequal distribution of resources and choices to organise daily time uses. The chapter is dealing with basic concepts of urban rhythms, the temporal efficiency of cities and the impact of temporal inefficiency on temporal/social justice. Since very little material is available, the central focus will be on elaborating central questions based on a variety of practical examples.

Zero-Acreage Farming: Challenges and Opportunities for Urban Policies and Partnerships

In recent years a growing number of urban farming projects have been established in and on buildings. The term “Zero-Acreage Farming” (ZFarming) describes the idea of growing food without using any additional land or acreage. It encompasses open-air rooftop farms, rooftop greenhouses, productive facades, and indoor farming on and in existing or newly built urban structures. Using the urban building stock instead of farmland or vacant parcels involves very distinct opportunities and challenges: specific building-related challenges, technical restraints, regulatory frameworks, reluctance of landlords and developers, but also opportunities for enhanced resource efficiency and the creation of new urban spaces. The objective of this contribution is to examine these peculiarities and discuss the specific opportunities and challenges they imply. The study illustrates site-related requirements, legislative frameworks as well as specific economic risks and opportunities; gives an overview of different stakeholders involved in planning and implementation processes, stressing the role of landlords and developers – their expectations, motivations and fears; and deduces implications for policies, programs and stakeholder management.

Temporal Efficiency, Temporal Justice and Urban Mobility

Urban areas are producers of the most productive and maybe efficient artefacts of humankind. They are characterised by different types of rhythms and temporal structures. The contribution analyses temporal (in)efficiencies in urban mobility and illustrates how these inefficiencies might be measured and made transparent. Exploring temporal inefficiencies and rhythms in transport and mobility offers hints at differences in mobility access and the distribution of space and time, that reach beyond pure questions of efficiency. Urban mobility involves important questions about equal and just mobility chances and options for all users of a city. Hence, temporal inefficiencies in urban mobility also raise questions about temporal inequalities and injustice and might call for redistributive action. To get to terms with temporal justice, the relations between transparency, equal access and individual temporal autonomy are disentangled. The right to one’s own time is taken as a yardstick for an urban space-–time policy, which is also oriented to temporal justice. The concept of temporal justice is not yet established, but the authors are convinced, that temporal justice should get more attention in the development of a more time-related welfare policy.

Lebensmittel vom Dach

Der Wettbewerb um Ressourcen und frucht baren Boden sowie steigende Energiepreise verteuern zunehmend die Nahrungsmittelproduktion. Daher gewinnt die gebaudegebundene Landwirtschaft, kurz „ZFarming“, seit etwa zehn Jahren an Bedeutung. Dieser weltweite Trend setzt der aktuellen Lebensmittelproduktion vielversprechende Ansatze entgegen.

INTERMEZZO: Time Intervention in Public Spaces – The Artist Mark Formanek

This chapter presents some of the works of the artist Mark Formanek, who lives and works in Berlin. Many of his works and installations in public places are intricate approaches to the topic of time. Formanek is fascinated by abstract, impalpable elements such as wind, smell or time. His works, often installed in public spaces, aim to stimulate people’s awareness of, and reflections on these invisible elements of their environment. The installations are disconcerting, challenging the audience to get involved. Formanek refrains from giving any directions on how to proceed. Observers are free as well as compelled to find their very own approach to what they see and to situate themselves in space and time. Formanek exploits the relation between points in time and spaces of time.

Further Research and Policy Perspectives

The contribution sums up the role and state of the art of space-time research and practice reflected in this book. The work presented in this volume is based on an exchange of European researchers and practitioners, who collaborate in the ENCiTi network (European Network of City Times). The contributions of this interdisciplinary group have illustrated that the spatio-temporal perspective in urban planning and urban policies can offer new insights for an improvement of the urban quality of life. Each of the authors approaches the topic from a different angle: hence, the book comprises descriptive, analytical as well as normative contributions and theoretical and empirical studies; some authors stress behavioural (temporal) patterns, whereas others emphasise urban structures or policies, shaping urban time spaces; they also differentiate between clock time and experienced time. This final contribution of the book highlights prime fields of further research, which is needed in order to foster the theoretical, methodological, empirical and normative ground of space-time research for it to become a neo-discipline. The following topics are described as possible fields for more in-depth research: rhythm analysis; temporal regulation; temporal efficiency and justice; urban structures, mobility and morphologies; dynamics of temporal changes; actors; time and identity; methods of empirical foundation and evaluation methods.