Agropolis, a scalable productive farm in the heart of central Christchurch, had its official launch as part of the Festival of Transitional Architecture over the Labour Day weekend.

Set on the previously empty site at 154 High Street, the transitional farm involves composting organic waste from inner city hospitality businesses as well as the ground preparation, sowing and planting, maintenance, harvesting, cooking and distribution of the produce grown on the site.

The edible landscape is a shared space accessible to all, where citizens support budding students to grow a form of collective enterprise specialising in local food and social goods. It also tests questions about the city’s food resilience, land use and food production and distribution in relation to the planning of the city.

Agropolis is a collaborative initiative between FESTA, Garden City 2.0, AECOM, A Local Food Project, Juliet Moore, Andreas Wesener (Lincoln University), Liv Worsnop (Plant Gang) and Rosie Brittenden (Christchurch Youth Council). AECOM’s South Island Regional Manager Shaun Hubbard said AECOM was delighted to be working in conjunction with these partners to make Agropolis a reality:

“We’re donating our technical skills to this grassroots project because we believe greening urban spaces with food production is a critical part of building both resilience and a strengthened sense of community. The Agropolis urban farm demonstrates how we can reduce waste going to landfill while forming real connections between the city’s hospitality industry and city-dwellers.”

Agropolis eventually aims to expand into an urban food hub, which would include a mobile kitchen that could be used for garden-to-plate experiences and educational programmes in the community.