Technological innovation in urban agriculture towards the ecological transition: a critical assessment of European best practices

Crop cultivation and animal husbandry have allowed the global population to grow rapidly, reaching eight billion today. However, large metropolises now consume 75% of the Earth's resources (Drożdż-Szczybura, 2018). While urban population density is increasing faster than the expansion of cities, which helps reduce soil consumption, the pressing issue of food poses a risk to its availability in the coming years, as well as soil fertility. The concept of a compact city offers a viable solution to the ever-growing urban areas, but agriculture must find new strategies to meet contemporary demands. In this context, the idea of producing food within the city, where more than half of the global population resides, becomes an interesting field for research and study in order to optimize production and address the issue of land consumption (World Cities Report, 2022). Throughout the last century, various visions of self-sufficient cities were proposed, such as Howard's Garden City (1989), Le Corbusier's unrealized project "Immeubles-Villas" (1992) or Wright’s Broadacre City (1934). Given the increasing number of communities within cities, these visionary ideas from the 19th century are becoming increasingly viable solutions to society's needs. This paper aims to analyse three international case studies, selected based on their self-sufficiency, ecological sustainability, and innovative urban farming solutions. The objective is to identify strategies for food production within the city, analyse their spatial unfolding and reflect upon the spatial relationships these establish within the compact city morphology.