Urban Fringe: Exploring the expansion of city, challenges on agricultural lands and food production in context of Northern Lund

Abstract: World population is increasing rapidly and cities are growing constantly outwards, in most cases taking over the agricultural lands. Besides Sweden imports 65% of agricultural products and if some situation like pandemic happens and neighbouring countries close the border completely the fresh vegetables will only last for 14 days! Responsible authority for this is the municipalities who have almost no control in food production. Lund is a city of education, research and innovation nowadays. When the city of Lund was born, it was surrounded by farmland. Then, with the Lund University in particular, city’s development became noticeable, as well as attracting creative people around the world. To cope up with its outstanding potential the geographical perimeter of the city has grown exponentially to accommodate this growing population. Even if the current population growth is taken in count, the population of Lund will be 3 times after 100 years. Besides, the way Lund is occupying the surrounding agricultural land and building, one day it will be it will be difficult to find agricultural land to grow food! So I think it is high time to rethink the way we live and grow food! The project explores the challenges and opportunities within and beyond to make a resilient city that can accommodate more people in limited space by densifying and using different hierarchical approach of food production considering different groups. The project seeks to integrate densifying living, food production, strengthen green blue connection for greater biodiversity and enhance the relationship of residents with nature, using clean energy and sustainable mobility options for a better sustainable world.