Urban Agriculture: Potential to Rehabilitate Spaces and Edifices Without Use and its Contribution to the Sustainable City

Abstract

The world's urban population is on a constant growth, which generates food supplying issues. Other than this, the common agricultural practice causes pressure on the natural ecosystems, for it requires a great amount of arable land. In a near future, there won't be enough land available for plantations in the rural area to meet the needs of an urban population that is on an exponential growth. Therefore, this research has the objective to understand how urban agriculture aids the sustainable city, and how it can contribute to the requalification of unused buildings and spaces throughout the cities. The methodology adopted has a qualitative theoretical approach, based on the revision of existing bibliography related to the theme, such as Dickson Despommier's theoretical concept of vertical farm, and Toyoki Kozai's practical studies on the same matter. As part of the research, study cases will be mentioned regarding the use of urban agriculture in vacant spaces, with the purpose that these will give a new meaning for obsolete spaces and buildings that exist in the urban perimeter. A solution for this problem is to produce perishable food inside the cities, which is known as urban agriculture. Results demonstrate that urban agriculture has a fundamental role regarding city's sustainable growth worldwide. As a conclusion, urban agriculture on top of buildings is the most prominent solution to give use to unutilized spaces in the cities.