AGROECOLOGICS. TOWARDS A TERRITORIAL, INTEGRATIVE AGRI-URBAN DESIGN. LUXEMBOURG AS A CASE STUDY.

This PhD thesis deals with the interrelation of the disconnected fields of urbanism, agriculture, ecology and planning. Such an attempt was inspired by a renewed relationship between the urban and agriculture, built from the perspective of agroecology and its manifestation in urban design and planning. Despite the growing interest in agricultural production in and around cities, urban planning processes are still ignoring its integration. In most instances when undeveloped land is available, neither food production nor the quality of soil have a high priority for planners and are mostly considered at the end of a planning process. While food entered the planning agenda more than a decade ago through the emergence of urban food planning, a perspective of food planning as a discipline towards an ‘urbanism’, i.e. agroecological urbanism, is still missing. Therefore, this PhD thesis is based on the conviction that urban planning should be reassessed from an agricultural perspective. In doing so, it introduces the notion of an agri-urban design, which aims to develop land with instead of against the agricultural landscape. The context of Luxembourg has been used to remedy such a missing link and propose a highly constructive and integrative planning approach that considers agriculture and its soil quality, within the planning process. The research is structured in five different methodological approaches ranging from a historical, comparative, multi-scalar case study, land-suitability towards a prospective approach. Each approach thereby builds on the findings of each other. Such a mixed-methods approach underlines the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of the different strands of urban and agricultural development. The results are subject to different validation methods, culminating in the formulation of a prospective vision of land use planning and design for the case of Luxembourg by combining agroecological principles

Luxembourg 2050 - Prospects for a Regenerative City Landscape : Report Phase 2

This report summarises the collaborative work of University of Luxembourg (UL), Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Centre for Ecological Learning Luxembourg (CELL), Institute for Organic Agriculture Luxembourg (IBLA), Office for Landscape Morphology (OLM) and encompasses the teams’ contribution to the International Urban-Architectural and Landscape Consultation “Luxembourg in Transition. Spatial Visions for the Zero-Carbon and Resilient Future of the Luxembourg Functional Region,” initiated by the Ministère de l’Energie et de l’Aménagement du territoire / Département de l’Aménagement du territoire (DATer) of Luxembourg