INVERSION CAP & TREE BORDER - ZONING LARGE SCALE FOR PRODUCTION

POTENTIALS & ANALYSIS_1

ANALYSIS & REGISTRATIONS FROM WERGELAND

REGISTRATIONS FROM WERGELAND_2

REGISTRATIONS FROM WERGELAND

WINTER GARDEN GALLERY FOR BAS (and my exhibition)

My conservatory / gallery for the green growing things is up!

BERGEN - LANDSCAPE, PRODUCTIVE LAND & NEEDS

The  city of Bergen is situated on the west coast of Norway and has been one of the most important national (and international) harbours in its history, with connection to the rest of the world mainly by sea in its first hundred years. 

The city is situated in a landscape with strong
caracter surrounded by 7 more or less steep
mountains, shaped in arcs called Bergens buene.
This hilly topography causes the caracteristic
humid climate the city is known for; mild humid
air from the North Sea and Atlantic comes in and
is pushed up along the mountain sides, causing the
temperature to drop and rain. The topography of
Bergen also makes city-planning challenging,
regarding settlement pattern and infrastrucutral
mobility strategies connected to settlement and
densification.

After centuries of beeing a city connected by sea
and horse (and by foot naturally), from 1900
Bergen developed connection-lines by rail.

Bergens banen crossing the mountain to the
eastern part of Norway (Oslo) was built in the
beginning of the 20th century. But also within its
city-limits and to neighboring municipalities (now
some included into Bergen Municipality) light rail
lines were developed, one of them turning in
todays light rail stop, access-point : Wergeland.

From the middle of the 20th century the private
car was more and more prioritated, and by massive
development of the road system a new settlement
pattern spread out caused by the accessibility of
the car.

Later plane traffic for people and goods has also
escalated. Connecting Bergen to the rest og the
world with oil.











This development of Bergen (prioritating private car infrastructure) has continued up until today,
and still seems to be the political mentality in the Region of Bergen.
Bergen Municipality masters an area of 465,68km2. 50% of this landscape is above 160m. 4,4% is
freshwater surface.

The urban areas are spread out over 108,5 km2, 23,3% of the total area of the Municipality,
divided into eight boroughs. With 267 860 inhabitants it is not a big city.

3,5% of Bergens area is farmland supporting only 11 780 people with food, on a vegetarian diet.
On a meat diet it is only sufficient to support 1980 peole through the year.

If all the 267 860 inhabitants was living on a vegetarian diet and it was all to be produced
within the Municipality it would require 333,58 km2, 71,6% of the landscape floor.

The Goverments amitions for the future is that we must be able to support ourselves
with 50% of consumed food within national borders to not put ourselves in a voulnerable position.
Based on these goals and ambitions to lower our eco-footprints
a change in local political mentality is required.

FROM GREY TO GREEN

Check out this fantastic project!

under the concrete : green

access-point : Wergeland background info

check the access-point : Wergeland page for updated info

THE IDEA OF ARTISAN AGRICULTURE

Conventional agriculture does not integrate easily into the urban fabric. It is space consuming, requires large machinery and heavy spraying of fertilizers and pesticides is "normal". Risking dust and chemicals to drift into residential areas will always be a concern and therefore conventional agriculture becomes incompatible with modern city-living.
In the urban landscape of Bergen, stuck between mountain walls,  the artisan model can work better as it is more flexible and adaptable.

Artisan: from Italian: artigiano, is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewelry, household items, and tools. The term can also be used as an adjective to refer to the craft of hand making food products, such as bread, beverages and cheese.

Manufacture by hand and with hand tools imparts unique and individual qualities to artisanal products, in contrast to mass produced goods where every one is nearly identical.

Artisans were the dominant producers of goods before the Industrial Revolution.  Artisans employ creative thinking and manual dexterity to produce their goods. (wikipedia.com)

When speaking of building communities upon an artisan economy one can assume that the food produced is of good quality and worth celebrating simply because of the knowledge, skills and concern put in the effort of making it.

Other plus words relating to an artisan agrarian economy are; 

# low toxicity farming, agroecological farming practices with a minimum of toxic pesticides and fertilizers. 

# high value products, for urban markets comes from smaller parcels. A community will focus on high value products. (You know your neighbor will suffer if you produce bad sugarpeas or rhubarb.)

# vertically integrated economy, the focus of artisan agriculture is on finished food products. The local community benefit from transforming the raw foodstuff into final products.

# integrated infrastructure, water, waste-water, energy and solid-waste management systems offer opportunities to both integrate with urban infrastructure and turn waste into shared resources. ( Composting food waste for soil improvement,  treating urban runoff in ponds using it for irrigation (water source), using waste urban heat for green houses.

# diverse education, the urban farmers education, or training of skills, covers agroecological farming practices and possible a range of small-business management strategies (to support the vertically integrated business opportunities).

# economic diversity, mixing agriculture with processing, retail, restaurants, agro-tourism and education greater economic diversity is achieved in the community, new opportunities for the inhabitants.

Skills and knowledge are of high value,which appeals to us and inspires us.

PLANNING WITH FOOD

The illustration shows the cycle of food. In the modern city making food visible in all its processes 'from field to fork' can be an important tool to develop more resilient communities. Glassed galleries on buildings, green houses on roofs and conservatories in the gardens for people to have extended production seasons. Children at school seeding and planting in their gardens and green houses. Grocery stores, cafes and restaurants in the streets selling local produce. Production fields for the new urban agrarian businesses and urban farmers to supply restaurants, grocery stores, kindergartens, schools, canteens, institutions etc. Clover covering the fields resting until next season. Festivals celebrating the seasons and local food, farmers markets, and people enjoying their own produce in their backyard with the neighbors. Organic waste composed and used directly in the vegetable gardens and production fields.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION FOR CATALOG

(y)our  alternative  legacy
developing urbanity along bergen light rail

How do we plan for future urban life, and develop a good background for future generations to live easier “green” lives?
The 21st century will be characterized by big changes in style of life, the way we know it. Governments sign treaties and make regulations on how to lower our green gas emissions. We will maybe not go short on oil and gas during the first 50 years, but regulations on emissions will make it difficult to continue in the same way as we have done the last 50 years.
From the ecological point of view other aspects matters more for the future; biodiversity over and under the sea surface, eco-systems supporting our way of life, valuation of productive land and how we decide to manage these resources, the impact we have on the planet.
With focus on the ecological footprint of our lifestyle, the project explores a possible future scenario in a site situated along the light rail line in Bergen, access point : Wergeland.
The ecological footprint of the average Norwegian in 2008 was 6,8 gha (global hectares), according to the Living Planet Report. Relative to available bio-capacity and the existing population of the planet, the ideal ecological footprint is 1,8 gha.
Working with conceptual strategies to lower our energy consumption within the five eco-footprint parameters : #MOBILITY, #SHELTER, #GOODS, #SERVICES and #FOOD, the necessary focal point of the project becomes:
- production of food (Urban Agriculture)
- visualization of the processes involved.
“From field to fork” is my strategy to develop more resilient communities along the light rail. Celebration of  food is important for our future life in the cities.

#1 MOBILITY

latest blog post youralternativelegacy.blogspot.com

PLACE & SPACE - from visual thesaurus

VALUATION OF LAND AND FUTURE ACCESS TO PRODUCTIVE SOIL

In the local paper BT yesterday we could read an article by Gerd Lithun, cand. agric., at the University in Bergen (UiB).

Here is a short summary in english, whole article can be read here, (norwegian only I´m afraid).

By Norwegian law polititians are committed to see to that productive soil is used to no other purpose (than production of food, fibers etc).
Still 13 000 acres (52,61 km2, 11,3% of the total area of Bergen municipality) of productive soil were re-disposed for other purposes, only last year, an area  equivalent to 1100 football fields.
In the period from 2000-2009 162 504 acres (657,63 km2, 141,22% of the total area of Bergen municipality), has been re-disposed for roads, housing, industrial zones, schools, sports facilities, etc. Only in Hordaland region 7950 acres (32,17km2) were re-disposed.
This area of productive soil can not be replaced after its buildt upon as it takes 100 years to produce 1cm of productive soil. In the same period only 104 187 acres was cultivated, but it cannot replace the soil taken out of production, as it does not hold the same qualities. Every year we reduce our most productive areas.

Compared to other nations we have a lot of area relative to number of citizens, but only small zones capable to produce food or fodder. Only 3% of Norwegian land area is productive, and only one third of this area is of such good quality it is able to produce corn. In 2008 this was equivalent to 2,2 acres pr inhabitant, or 8900 m2 (2,7 acres pr inhab. is the average on world basis). 2,2 acres of good quality can produce 880kg of corn or 1320kg grass. This is enough to feed up 3,5 pigs for slaughter, or about 1/4 of a milk producing cow. But most of the productive fields we hold is best suited to produce fodder or grass due to climatic conditions.

1 million acres of irreplaceable land is lost the last 50 years in Norway. As long as it is happening little by little it does not attract much attention.

With the productive land we have we are able to feed 50% of the population through the year, or all of the inhabitants half the year. The rate of self-supply for Norway in 2008 was calculated 52% on an energy basis (kcal). We are able to produce almost enough milk and meat but we need to import corn. But large numbers of the milk and meat production is based on imported fodder.
Last year the spring was dry and the harvesting season wet so only 15% of the produces corn was of quality for human consumption.

Calculations show that the Norwegian population will increase with 1 mill by 2030. To maintain a self-sufficiency level of 50% we need to increase the production by 20%. Are we able to achieve this?
What happens if we will no longer have access to rent productive fields and cheap labor in other countries? Only 10% of world production is sold on the world market, the rest is regionally or locally consumed.

8th of June this year we heard on the news that Sandnes municipality plan to build on 2000 acres of the best productive land we have in this country. Land should not be managed by the municipalities alone if they can make this decision without national discussion.

LANDSHARE - connecting grower to people with land to share

This is a sharing-program from the UK. Basically it is farmers or others with growable land left over, sharing it with someone who doesn´t, put into system.

check this out : www.landshare.net

PETE DUNGEY - POTHOLE GARDENS

This needs to be shared simply for the beauty of it!
www.petedungey.com