Urban Farms Becoming Reality

The news that Urban Design Hub's Scheme for a City Centre Farm on a multi-storey car park in the centre of Birmingham is recommended for approval is a sign of the seed-change of developers beginning to embrace the concept of greening the city, at the expense of lettable space. Historically every square foot of developable sites have been squeezed to maximise profit, but there is clearly a great value now to embracing the benefits of growing to improve City Centre working environments, and a great help to mental health.

In Derby City Centre, the Electric Daisy has opened over the past few weeks, utilising a former supermarket site in the heart of the City for meeting and growing. Tim Smit, of The Eden Project fame has embraced this project and brings his support and knowledge to the Derby team, which has been created by Jamie Quince Starkey, a passionate advocate of the power of growing and the benefits to health and well-being, all stemming from a letter to Tim asking for advice and support.

City Centres are being re-invented necessarily so, and the vision below created for Derby is now a reality. Originally a Market Town before becoming a home to the industrial revolution, it looks like Derby might once again led the way in pioneering a new revolution, Greening the City.