The 3rd Urban Greenhouse Challenge concluded at University of Wageningen on June 29th, 2022. Forty-two teams from more than 30 countries and regions around the world participated in this nine-month global competition .

The team “IUA.CAAS” is led by Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and composed of students from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China Agricultural University, Jiangsu University, etc. As the only team from China, “IUA.CAAS” went through three rounds and won the fourth prize out of the 10 finalists of the Challenge.

The Challenge requested each team to develop a comprehensive plan for East Capitol Urban Farm (Washington, D.C.) that could ensure year-round sustainable food production and improve the quality of life (QoL) of local residents.

Based on the phylosophy that urban agriculture could promote rural revitalization in peri-urban areas, “IUA.CAAS” chose “community activation” as the core concept of the design and came up with an integrated solution “Oasis Action Plan” in which three programmes were developed, namely the Oasis Mom Farm, the Oasis Food Lab and the Oasis Bank.

Aiming at the goals in food production, sustainability, business model, social impact as well as spatial design, the Oasis Action Plan is expected to turn East Capitol Urban Farm into a community-based urban farm that also serves as a sustainable food producer, an employment training base and an educational park.

The Plan has received good comments from the Jury. It is believed that the Plan could improve local food systems and QoL of local residents in health, education, society and culture, environment and infrastructural access, contributing to the urban sustainability and resilience.

By Zhang Lu (zhanglu03@caas.cn)