agri-food -park

70% of the world’s population will be living in cities by 2050, citizens who will need access to wholesome and wholesome food. Given this scenario, Denmark wants to lead food research and innovation with Agro Food Park, an campus housing 80 organizations and 1,000 employees in an environment that combines agricultural production and life urban.

The project, founded in 2009, is located near the second largest Danish city, Aahrus, with a dimension of 43,000 square meters where small and large, private and public, local and multinational companies are located. Over the next 30 years, the park is expected to be expanded in multiple phases to 300,000 square meters to accommodate new organizations and employees, following a Master Plan designed to foster cooperation between researchers and companies, as well as their ability to boost agricultural production in densely urban environments, ensuring long-term food security without environmental degradation.

According to the authors of the Master Plan, by William McDonough + Partners, the project aims to treat urban and agricultural development as an ecosystem unified, productive and restorative. We want to work on a symbiotic relationship between urban and agricultural infrastructure, integrating the nutrients we produce in the production cycle of healthy and healthy food, as well as aspects such as the carbon cycle, energy flows in buildings, or land use. . The park will have three large sections: the “Pasto” or a central communal green space where experimenting with food production, the “Línea” or main street where urban life is guaranteed throughout the day, and five “Plazas” in around which thematic clusters and neighborhoods with their own identity will be created. The park is also intended to be attractive to Aahrus residents, and from 2017 a tram will connect the campus to the city center in an 11-minute journey.

Denmark has good credentials to lead such a project: it produces enough to feed six times its population and often through eco-responsible methods.