CPULs – Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes – Andre Viljoen (2006)

Review of CPULs – Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes. Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities. Andre Viljoen (ed) 2005. Architectural Press.

Great book, terrible title. Andre Viljoen has put together a book of the most profound importance at this point in history. How will we feed our cities beyond the age of cheap oil? Does the old concept that the cities are for people to live in and the countryside is for growing food in still have any relevance when our cheap transport system is no longer able to function? Viljon argues not. We should view our cities as much in terms of being productive spaces as we view our rural areas.

‘The city as a farm’ may appear a fanciful notion in our 21st century industrialised society, yet if we look to the only country thus far to have experienced peak oil, Cuba, we can gain some insight into how we too will have to rethink some basic assumptions.
This book’s importance is in its communicating to those (architects and designers) who shape our built environments on a daily basis, a profoundly different way of seeing urban space. It is only in the last 30 or so years that we have perfected the art of creating totally useless landscapes. New industrial estates and business parks typify this, planted with ‘low maintenance’ shrubs, specifically bred to be entirely unproductive. I could never see the use of flowering cherries, fruiting cherries do make flowers too. CPULs offers a profoundly radical vision of how such space could be used. It also offers a glimpse into the near future, where local food is produced in diverse and abundant landscapes and where cities become net producers of food rather than importers.

I cannot recommend this book too highly. It is practical, deeply rooted in the experience and history of allotment holders, community gardeners and urban market gardeners around the world, and it offers a radiant new vision for our cities. At the same time it uses language and a format that makes it accessible to those who design such spaces. It represents a quantuum leap forward for architecture and landscape design.

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