SowGrowConnect

SowGrowConnect: Circular Delta 2050: Sowing the seeds for a zero-emission society through a locally-oriented, knowledge-based greenhouse horticulture

Oosterhoff, Laura (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)
Perry, L.K. (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)
Weber, G.K.J. (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)
Wiegers, Lotte (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)
Zhou, Y. (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)

Dabrowski, M.M. (mentor)
Sepulveda Carmona, D.A. (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Urbanism

AR2U086 R&D Studio – Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis

2024-04-22

The Dutch greenhouse industry contributing 19% of the national carbon emissions, highlights its significant role in the ever-increasing environmental, social, and political challenges developing from climate change. Geopolitical tensions including the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with resource scarcity and a world population growth underscore the urgency of transitioning societal practices within the food-energy nexus. Existing policies such as the European Green Deal emphasize the need to transition toward renewable energy. Given the horticulture sector’s substantial spatial and global exportation footprint, there is potential to strategically utilize these spaces and economic flows. If successful, Dutch greenhouses can be the catalyst for a circular society model that emphasizes environmental regeneration, peri-urban community empowerment, and representative policy.

This report builds from theories including social justice, circular economy, glocalization, and regenerating peri-urban landscapes. By applying a circular society framework, which prioritizes sustainable consumption patterns, co-created policy, and spatial justice, this report develops a regional strategy for connecting and diversifying greenhouse sub-regions. The goals of this strategy include enhancing community engagement, ecological restoration, innovative knowledge-based production, and fully renewably sourced systems. An analysis through the lens of these intended goals leads to an instruction manual for redesigning industrial landscapes and an index of potential building blocks to implement in the redesign.

This instruction manual offers to scientific relevance through a large-scale combination of innovations, and a circular 15-minute social and 30-minute economic system, and societal relevance through lowering political unrest and the combination of technical and social functions. The manual is useful for a diverse range of parties including municipalities, policymakers, scientists, students, and residents.

Ultimately, SowGrowConnect aims for a future where greenhouse regions are not just endless rows of glasshouses but inclusive and diverse energy and social landscapes.

Greenhouse Horticulture
Community Engagement
Renewable Energy
knowledge Economy
Circularity

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:463f9ada-19a5-4385-9cef-242652a16c28

Student theses

student report

© 2024 Laura Oosterhoff, L.K. Perry, G.K.J. Weber, Lotte Wiegers, Y. Zhou