woodhouse: becoming an alive neighborhood

MA Landscape Architecture
MA Urban Design

CITIES ALIVE 2015

Marc Bori, Linn Svanh, Martina Maria Taroni

CONTENTS
2

Research
Introduction
Research objectives
Aims
Gardens benefits
Introduction to urban agriculture
Urban agriculture gardens typology
Land access
Food growing principles
Growing food in schools
Children relation with food
National curriculum
Sustainability networks
Case studies

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4
5
6
7
8
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Site analysis
Location
Context
Topography
Infrastructure
Green spaces
Local activities
Building use
Houses typology

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20
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24
25
26

This study is focused on the idea of

creating an alternative green corridor to
the existing idea of the String o Breads,
connecting Woodhouse Moor (Leeds
Edible Campus) to Woodhouse Ridge. This
idea comes after the observation of the
lack of green spaces in the Woodhouse
neighbourhood.This project will be focused
in more then one area, trying to create
a real green network. It will involve two
public ground and the local primary school
(Quarry Mount primary school) ground.
The idea is to involve all the residents without
distinction of genre, age, background.

INTRODUCTION

It will be use as a social connector, as health,

environmental and economic benefit,
but also as educational instrument to
make the children aware about the
food production and preparation and
to give more skills in term of the nature.

String o Breads
Leeds Edible Campus
Green spaces
Green spaces in the study area

LEC green expansion

Project green expansion
Sites green spaces connection
Connection with outside green

1 step - actual situation

Examination of key principles of designing natural playground in

school and green spaces for the community, both productive and
for leisure.

The whole community will benefit of this project because it will help to
increase the quality of public realm, the social cohesion.Through the
outdoor activities it will help to improve the lifestyle
standards and the mental health, which is directly connected with
happiness and satisfaction.
It will limit the deprivation as if the people will start to produce
their own food they will become self-sufficiency, reducing lifes costs.
At last it will give to the area environmental and ecological benefits as it
will help to build a sustainable landscape and to increase the biodiversity.

2 step - transition
3 step - ideal situation

Regards to health benefits it will help the children to have

a healthier diet and to avoid the problem of oversize/obese
children and to overtake the problem of deprivation which
afflict many families.
Indeed the idea is to expand the
project also outside the school and to involve parents and other
members of the community to start to grow their of vegetables and
fruits giving them the proper collective spaces or promoting the
Back to Front project which can be easily realized in every garden.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Relating to the school, having a productive ground is

important under different points of view. First of all it will increase the
social benefits as it will help to create stronger friendship, to
improve children behaviour inside and outside the school, it will
help to promote outdoor activities (then exercise) and to revise
the school curriculum including gardening and cooking programs.

AIMS

There is a community amongst gardeners. Gardening has

always served as a way to break down some of social
barriers
Gardening is a preferred form of exercise across
age, gender and ethnicity
There are benefits to the individual via the community gardening such as improved life quality,
personal satisfaction and enjoyment

SHARE KNOWLEDGE AND

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
IMPROVE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
BENEFITS FOR THE
INDIVIDUAL

The presence of vegetable gardens in innercity

neighborhoods is positively correlated with decreas in crime, trash dumping, young delinquency,
fires, violent deaths and mental illness

GARDENS BENEFITS
6

People who interact with

plants recover more quickly
from everyday stress and
mental fatigue

HOUSE VALUE

SOCIAL BENEFITS

ECONOMIC BENEFITS

GARDENS
BENEFITS

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
SOIL CARE

CONNECT
WITH NATURE

HEALTH BENEFITS
RELIEVE STRESS

EAT HEALTHIER
GARDENING BENEFITS
YOUR HEALTH

As an activity it is a means of aerobic, isometric

and isotonic exercise, the combination of which
benefits general health but specifically enhance
strenght, endurance, flexibility

Around 20% of the value of a

house is tied up in the landscape
A garden gives an higher value to
propertiest

BUILD
COMMUNITIES

Yard care and gardening activities have a direct impact on

the neighborhood and comIMPROVE SOCIETY
munity environment
Garden links different sector of cities;
diverse age, race, ethnic and socioeconomic group

Gardening offers a relationship

with nature which provides a
sense of psychological
wellbeing
School based programs have
significant health effect on young
people, help to promote active
lifestyles that counteract the passivity associated with the obesity
epidemic

Urban and street planted trees enchance economic stability of localities and community by attracting
business and tourists

Gardening is utilised
to build teams and
educate

EDUCATION

Promote a community atmosphere and allowing people an opportunity

to meet others, share concerns, share skills and solve problems together

Gardens are an expense but the

investiment is returned not just in
enjoyment but in actual financial
benefits

LOWER BLOOD
PRESSURE

The physicality of gardening

releases endorphins which
helps to alelviate stress and
its side effects
Families with home vegetable garden eat more
fruit and vegetables for
improved nutrition
Green triggers a response in the
sympathetic nervous system to
relive tension in the blood
vessels and lowers the blood
pressure

WILDLIFE

Plants can prevent floods,

drought and soil erosion
Plants help to preserve
biodiversity and wildlife

Trees absorbe CO2

AIR FILTRATION

Trees filter the air and help remove

harmful particulates from the atmosphere
Every garden plant is a bio-filtration
system for the planet

URBAN AGRICULTURE

Urban agriculture plays an important role as part of an

environmental sustainability program. Physically, it
increases green space, which reduces the urban heat
island, storm water runoff, and improves air quality.
Because food is produced locally, urban agriculture
also reduces energy consumption and pollution
associated with transportation. Urban agriculture
also provides social benefits by providing inexpensive
access to locally-grown produce.

Growing food in cities is becoming more and more

popular. Not only are older generations of allotment
holders still gardening happily, but also a new wave
of younger people are seeking land in and beyond
allotments. Small, intensive urban farms, food production
on housing estates, land sharing, rooftop gardens and
beehives, schoolyard greenhouses, restaurant-supported
salad gardens, public space food production, guerrilla
gardening, allotments, balcony and window sill vegetable
growing and other initiatives are just a few examples.
This wide range of initiatives is more and more
often referred to as urban agriculture.
Urban agriculture (UA) is defined as the growing,
processing and distribution of food and other products
obtained through plant cultivation and animal husbandry
in and around cities, generally with the aim of being
sold locally (rather than exported).

POSITIVE
Education about seasonality of food, which can
lead to more sustainable consumption habits
Soil rehabilitation bio and myco remediation
of polluted soils, increased soil fertility and
biodiversity

NEGATIVE

Misuse of commercially available chemicals as

fer-tilisers, insecticides, herbicides, whose traces
in the environment endanger human health

Re-education of taste: possibility of eating

vegetables not usually available in the supermarkets
Improved mental health and relations with
the local community

Increased groundwater pollution and loss of

soil nutrients from poorly managed soils
Council encouragement to local food growing
as justification for substantial cuts in welfare
services (public health budgets)
Increased energy inputs to grow vegetables
unsuitable for the local climate
Poor management of community gardens,
con-flicting projects, unequal sharing of produce

Affordably of fresh, organic food all year round

Increased rent of allotments due to high demand

Reduced carbon footprints of food, when

recycled materials are used, waste is minimised
and organic agriculture is practiced

Increased carbon emissions for food production,

when gardening involves the use of a number
of carbon impacting things such as commercially
produced compost, plastic netting bought
annually, slug pellets, plastic pots and labels
for seedlings that are not re-used, plastic
sheets and other consumables

Reconstruction of food commons (when public

land is managed collectively but not appropriated),
renormalizing the possibility of foraging and
gath-ering food, grow food collectively

Enclosure (or privatisation) of public land for food

growing, justified as saving council management
costs, which reduced public access and
ownership of common resources

Increased consumption of sustainable locally

pro-duced food (increased self-reliance) and
building alternative food regimes, food sovereignty
Snowball effect and greater reconnection of
hu-mans with nature

Strengthening unjust ecological security policies

(self-sufficiency aimed at maintaining neoliberal
regimes and unsuitable consumption patterns)
Uselessly long waiting lists of allotments, and
little beneficial/productive use of allotment land

Alternative, visionary urbanism, which reconciled

society and nature, an embeds food production
in the urban realm

Gentrification of neighbourhoods and the

conse-quent displacement of the less
wealthy population

Recycling of organic waste to keep nutrients local

Increased community activity, physical exercise

Chiara Tornaghi (2014) - How to set up your own urban agricultural project with a socio-environmental justice perspective.
A guide for citizens, community groups and third sector organisations - Leeds, The University of Leeds

URBAN AGRICULTURE TYPOLOGIES

Display Gardens - Small edible beds,

former flower planters or community
gardens set up in public, openly
accessible space that are planted with
edible plants to inspire people to grow.
They lend to be man-aged by local
authorities, and to be aesthetically
pleasing, therefore the plants are not
usually harvested and people are not encouraged to pick the fruit and veg.

Educational Gardens - Food growing

projects that have as their main goal
horticultural, envi-ronmental and/or
food-related education (i.e. cooking,
healthier lifestyle, etc.). Almost all the
existing gardening projects have an
educational element.
Enclosed Community Gardens
Many community gardens are not
located on public land, but are rather
located on private land. Most of the
time this implies a restricted definition
of which community can potentially
be involved. Examples could be
hospital community gardens, projects
for young single mothers or female victims of violence, asylum
seekers and refugees, street drinker rehabilitation projects.

Guerrilla Gardens - These gardens

are a quite wide family of projects,
linked together by the fact that they
are created by someone, on someone
elses land, without asking permission.
These can be flower meadows on
derelict land, vegetable patches on
reclaimed land scattered around the city. Guerrilla gardens tend to be
temporary but if the project gets permission, then this
becomes a community garden.
Public Accessible Community Gardens - this is probably the most
Vertical Gardens - They are usually
known type of urban agricultural initiative. These gardens are located
in parks, street verges, urban greens,
growing projects that extend vertically
city squares or other locations
along a wall, or a window, or occasionally
where they can be accessed by larger
the plants themselves constitute the wall,
public all the time. Plants are grown
and grow in containers attached to vertical
in containers, dedicated raised beds,
cables.
greenhouses, or straight into the soil.

managed

by, or

run

in

Healing Gardens - These are growing

projects specifically dedicated to healing.
They tend to grow medicinal/aromatic
plants, are designed in ways that please
the senses, and are run to support
specific groups through gardening
or creative activities around and in
between the plants. They are often
partnership with, health institutions.

Public orchards
A number of local councils
are investing in the future
and planting fruit and nut
trees on public land. The
act of planting itself is sometimes done in partnership with local
community organisations or institutions, such as primary schools.
Public orchards constitute the basis for a bountiful harvest in a few years
time.

URBAN AGRICULTURE TYPOLOGIES

Community Forest Gardens

Urban Farms - Urban farms are
Forest gardens are usually woody areas
usually middle sized sites within the
planted with edible (perennial) species
city, that combine vegetable growing,
following permaculture principles.This
animal husbandry, leisure and
means that the gardens are designed to
educational activities. Sometimes they
mimic the positive interaction between
run a caf or small restaurant with the
species that we spontaneously find in
local produce, they have play areas and
nature, but maximising the number of
offer growing spaces for local schools,
edible species. While less common than vegetable gardens, edible forest community groups or families. In the UK they are usually co-founded
gardens are increasingly becoming a preferential choice of local communities by local councils and other charities for the educational
that have discovered the benefits of choosing perennial edible plants. services that they provide.

Allotments - Probably the most

widespread form of urban food growing.
While most forms of commercial and
household food growing have progressively
disappeared from the urban fabric in the last
century,allotments have been re-introduced
or become regulated by public authorities.
In the UK it is a statutory duty of local
authorities to provide allotments when there is demand. Allotments
plots are usually of a standard size (originally 10x30), and can be rented by
individuals (a smaller number of plots can be rented by community groups).
Allotments sites are usually fenced and restrict access to members of the
public. Produce cannot be sold commercially, but can be sold when it is
excess produce, with the purpose of raising funds for their allotment
association or can be exchanged/sold among members of the allotment
association.
Landshare Gardens - Landshare
gardens are privately owned (usually
front or back gardens) that property
owners decide to share,or to let people
(landless) who are willing to grow use
for free. Landshare provides a number
of benefits: it encourages the exchange
of skills, pro-duce sharing, community
building and personal and emotional support to lone householders.

Market Gardens and Commercial Farms

These are profit oriented versions
of the above. They also tend to be
middle-sized projects, but are less likely
to receive ex-ternal funding. Some have
adapted to the growing demand for
leisure and educational services,
and combine vegetable (and meat)
production with recreational activities for family and children and offer some
educational opportunities,in the form of short courses.Some of these,smaller
in size, specialise in the propagation of specialist plants for edible landscaping.
Indoor Growing - Urban agriculture does not
only occur outdoors.More and more projects are
looking into how to convert empty buildings into
food growing projects, using natural or artificial
light, or for activities that do not need much light
such as mushroom growing and fish farming.
Private Gardens - Alongside all these
types of urban agriculture we also have
to consider the wide range of interstitial
practises that grow food within the fabric
of the city: balcony pots and window
sill containers, front and back garden
plant growing and animal rearing, beekeeping and seed sprouting.

LAND SHARE
It is an informal agreement between a landowner and one or more
food growers. Several organisations promote forms of land share.
The most know is the nationwide LandShare (www.landshare.net)
GUERILLA GARDENING
It is the cultivation of a plot/portion of land without permission, but
without appropriation/enclosure of the land. This is usually a
temporary and unsecured way of accessing land. Guerilla
approaches dont secure you a harvest.

LAND ACCESS

SQUATTING
It means taking over someone elses land (usually abandoned) to
grow food, establishing some sort of infrastructure that
aims to be permanent. Squatting is usually more long term than
guerrilla gardening, but to make it sustainable needs an energy and
financial investment in legal battles to claim your right to grow food
on this land.

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MEANWHILE USES
These are temporary leases for a space that would normally be used
for other activities.This can be idea for container growing, as the soil
might be concreted over or not fit for agriculture and structures
that can easily be moved elsewhere once the lease ends.
TEMPORARY USES
These are occupational leases, or growing licenses, signed on a
temporary basis, which usually are renewed annually.
ONGOING LEASE
This type of lease is especially designed for farmers.
The ongoing term is particularly suitable for new projects
seeking start-up fund to buy the infrastructured needed.

FOOD GROWING PRINCIPLES

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SUN It absolutely one of the main requirements of the plants,

which need at least six hours of sun a day. When growing in
the lower range of sun exposure, its better to choose carefully
the plants species, such as herbs, all of the leafy greens and some
small fruiting as cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. Carrots, potatoes
and other root vegetables need at least eight hours of sunshine, and
plants such as tomatoes, peppers, melons and squash will not produce
large fruits that ripen to colour without full sun. Plants draw energy
from sunlight, and producing a large, colourful fruit requires much more
energy than producing a small fruit or leafy vegetable.

IRRIGATION Key components of any irrigation system are

well, pump and proper size main and lateral lines. Frequently these
components are undersized for the area to be watered, and serious
inefficiencies occur. Since proper engineering of a watering system
is necessary, it is important to carefully determine the area to be
irrigated with consideration towards increased capacity. Overhead
sprinkling is one of the most commonly used methods of irrigating
greenhouse. Other irrigation methods include drip or trickle
and subirrigation. General information on each of these systems
follows, with mention of some of the major advantages
and disadvantages associated with each method.

SOIL - Well-prepared soil acts as the immune system of the plants.

Its ideal to have 12-18 inches of nutrient-dense, deeply aerated soil
to give plants what they need to thrive. If a plant is well nourished
by healthy soil, its less susceptible to disease and less appealing to insects
because pests attack sick or weak plants first. Compost
supercharges the soil with beneficial bacteria, carbon and nutrients.

PATHS - Paths provide space to work comfortably in the garden

and they allow the garden to breathe without them, the rows
can get trampled and the tiny air pockets that are essential to
soil healthy can get choked off. Ideal to mark the paths are straw,
wood chips, bluestone pavers, brick or stepping stones.

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GROWING FOOD IN SCHOOL

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CHILDREN RELATION WITH FOOD

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NATIONAL CURRICULUM

Feed Leeds is a plot to plate project supporting food growers and would-be growers, shop and markets, schools, caterers and cooks,
in fact anyone who feels that fresh, local, affordable, sustainable and healthy food should be widely available in Leeds. The combined
aim of all the different projects and organisations is essentially to develop and support local food growing and consumption in Leeds,
and to research and promote the significant economic, social, environmental and health benefits they potentially bring to the city.

SUSTAINABILITY NETWORKS

The Feed Leeds co-managed project builds on existing food-growing and biodiversity projects in the city centre to
Hyde park corridor (and beyond), linking schemes run by a number of organisations, and encouraging new plots,
to help create an inspirational demonstration of how Leeds could be more healthy and more sustainable through
the creative, ecological growing of edible plants. Leeds Edible campus sites include Edible Beds outside the Civic
Hall, Leeds Unis Sustainable Garden, the Bardon Grande project, LCC Parks and Countrysides edible beds on
Woodhouse Moor and other food and biodiversity planting schemes. The aim was to create an edible
corridor incorporating a variety of projects and to explore ideas and designs for incorporating edible
plants into the city landscape to create aesthetically pleasing, productive planting.

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Back to Front is a community organisation set up to promote food growing in front gardens so that they look good and taste better.
Growing food at home gives people a chance to exercise, eat fresher food, spend less money on groceries, feel better and help the
environment. Front garden growing improves the look and feel of your street and is super-convenient for growers. But Back to Front
gardening is much more than this; it is about how neighbours talk and share and grow together as communities.
Leeds Edible Schools Sustainability Network (LESSN) has been formed to help promote local food growing and
consumption, healthy lifestyles and sustainability in Leeds schools and communities. We aim to recognise, enhance and
share great ideas, to celebrate achievements large and small, to help connect schools with local support, volunteers,
and national initiatives, and to provide interactive curriculum-based online learning resources, practical help and more.
The Healthy Living Network have delivered a number of projects across the city- including our incredibly successful Community
Health Educator programme, which trains local people to support their communities in making small changes towards
improving their health and wellbeing. It delivers health education sessions in deprived areas of the city.
It is an innovative, creative and dynamic environmental community organisation. It works with local communities to improve their
surroundings, designing and creating attractive, exciting, safe and useful places for people to live, work and play. Improving the
wellbeing of people and communities is at the heart of what they do. Through our work we facilitate the Five Ways to Wellbeing,
encouraging people and communities to Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learn-ing and Give.

Rotherfield primary school - Edible playgrounds - London

Rotherfield Primary school is situated in Islington, London where many of the pupils live in flats without any gardens.The government and head teacher
decided to do something about it and came up with the idea of transforming the grey schoolyard into a green garden as a learning resource.
The edible playground has been a huge success among the children and has improved the school in many ways. Not only do they use it for gardening
but for different subjects such as math, English and writing. They also got a woodland area with grown up trees for relaxing and assembling, an outdoor
classroom where the children could gather for story times or reading a book in the woodhouse. The pupils got taught how to grow and harvest the
vegetables in a practical way which encourages them to cook and eat healthy.

CASE STUDIES - SCHOOL

The garden is maintained by the pupils where every class is responsible for their own planting bed. They also got volunteers by the children, their parents and grandparents who look after the garden during the holidays.

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West Jesmond Primary School Gardens - Newcastle

West Jesmond is a suburb just north of the central of Newcastle upon Tyne. 14 years ago a parent of a pupil in the primary school, together with a
member of the Highbury South Allotment Association organized an allotment for the school to take care of. This project have now grown and exist
today of several plots, all maintained by the pupils. The plots are self-sufficient by selling the produced plants to the school and to private persons on
different sales.
The school is using these plots as an outdoor classroom for the older pupils, where they today got a lot of different biotopes. The allotment room
raised beds, greenhouses, an orchard, a pond, a marsh garden, picnic tables and a willow tunnel. This gives the pupils new possibilities for practical
learning and they use the plots on a weekly basis to dig, weed, plant out, harvest etc.

Leaf Street Community Garden - Manchester

The garden along Leaf Street in Manchester was an act from the local residents in 2000. The area existed of a wide pathway, full of weed, in between
two rows of red brick buildings. They wanted to turn it into a community garden where the residents could interact with each other and grow food
together.This is a good example of the phenomena Guerilla gardening were the locals decided to do it on their own and started to dig up the pathway.
Fruit trees and shrubs were planted and they built a big herb spiral made of railroad ties. A pathway of wood chips meanders through the park and has
replaced the former wide concrete pedestrian walk.

CASE STUDIES - community

The garden is loved and has a strong identity by its locals and is now a good example of a resilient community. Here they produce their own vegetables, fruits and herbs together in the community which makes a positive impact on the climate. It is an inspiration for other communities to grow food
locally and stop importing vegetables from all over the world.

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Philadelphia Pop-Up Garden - Philadelphia, United States

This Pop-Up Garden in Philadelphia, U.S. is funded by the non-profit organization Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) on a vacant lot that has been
neglected for many years. It was in 2011 that they transformed this waste land near 15th and South Streets into a temporary urban resort. The land is
situated just six blocks from the City Hall which makes the area perfect to attract city dwellers to step by and take part of all the activities that goes
on here.
Among the activities, food growing is one of them. Here they produce vegetables for local restaurants and to families in need through the PHS City
Harvest program.The food is grown organically in dozens of raised beds and is maintained by several community garden groups. Other activities going
on are workshops, yoga-classes, movie nights, parties, gardening walks etc.

Arkwright Meadows Community Gardens - Nottingham

In Nottingham a lush community garden has been raised on parts of a disused playing field by its local residents in 2001. It is situated in the meadows,
a central place in Nottingham that is very underprivileged and got residences from all over the world. With partnership from local communities and
volunteers the garden started to transform in 2003. From the beginning, a hedge, fruit trees and raised beds were planted, but now the community has
grown a lot more.

CASE STUDIES - COMMUNITY

The garden now holds 19 small plots that measure 1.5 square meters, where the locals could grow their own food. A tyre garden made of recycled
tractor tyres are used for raising herbs and strawberries. The big growing circle in the garden provides crops for every season of the year and is
maintained and harvested by the community.The garden today even got hens that lay eggs and keep slugs and snails away from the plants.The hens even
help out with the compost area where they move around the weed and food scraps.

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An eco- building where built in the garden after getting funding from the Big Lottery Found in 2012. This made it also possible to employ staff and
go on with the work for four more years. In the new eco-building they got training rooms for meetings and lessons, a kitchen and office. It keeps the
community active even during the winter and is even available for leasing to other groups and communities. The community holds activities apart from
gardening such as dancing, yoga, and cooking. This is a good way to bring the different people in the community together and let them try new things
from all parts of the world.
The Arkwright Meadows Community Garden holds a lot of events where they celebrate the cultural diversity of the community and sales when
residents could come and buy vegetables. They aim to sell organic fruits, plants and vegetables with reasonable prices for the community to eat healthy
and local. The community garden is a place for relaxing and recreation as well as work and education. They train their volunteers to get qualifications
and therefore be able to get a job in the green sector.

Woodhouse is a largely residential area

just north of the city centre of Leeds
(West Yorkshire) and home of the
University of Leeds, which is in the
Hyde Park and Woodhouse ward of
City of Leeds metropolitan district.
The name Woodhouse is likely to derive
from Old English wudu (wood) and hus
(houses).

SITE ANALYSIS - LOCATION

Woodhouse is now a largely working-class

area, with a racially diverse population and
a sizeable student community.

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The area climbs a hill rising from

Woodhouse Moor, adjacent to the
University of Leeds, and backs onto
woodland known as Woodhouse Ridge, a
part of the Meanwood Valley Trail and the
Forest of Leeds.
Older residences are largely redbrick
back-to-back and through terraced
housing. There are also concrete council
houses (the Holborn Estate) and a mixture
of more modern buildings, particularly
student accommodation.
Furthermore,there are other older buildings
like the Anglican parish church of St Marks,
currently disused but being renovated for
use by Gateway Church Leeds, the Quarry
Mount Primary School, and several public
houses that provide historical character
and architectural value to the area.

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SITE ANALYSIS - CONTEXT

SITE ANALYSIS - TOPOGRAPHY

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The local topograhpy consists of ridges

and spurs of land, but in general it slopes
to the city centre. Travel into the city
generate the general impression of
descending to the city centre, being
involved into the urban building mass.
This fact, reflects how the green spaces
around the area have been adapted to
the tophography. Creating a diverse urban
landscape and allowing the creation of a
great green infrastructure around the city
enabling to find from small private gardens
to woodlands.

KEY
Primary roads
Secondary roads
Local roads

SITE ANALYSIS - INFRASRACTURE

Pedestrian paths

22

The area is well supplied by a

great
infrastructure
network.
There are few main road crossing it,
which can guarantee an easy movement by car. There also few bus lines
driving through them, which means that
also the residents which dont have a
car have the possibility to move around.
There is a good network of minor
roads which are safer and better used
also by the cyclist and pedestrian. This
is really important in an area mostly
populated by young people and students.

SITE ANALYSIS - GREEN SPACES

KEY

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General green
Woodland
Cemetery
Semi green spaces
Allotments
Playground/sport pitches
Farmland
Buildings

It can be seen from this map that there is

a great quantity of different green spaces
which connect Woodhouse Moor to
Meanwood Farmland through Woodhouse
Ridge.
The main concerning about them
is the quality as not always they are
well maintain and the value of the
green featues is sometimes really low.
Our main aim is to take the existing
green spaces, improving them and then
connecting them with new potential
green spaces with different function:
community allotments, neighboor parks
and school projects.

KEY

Bedford forest garden

Meanwood farm
Mill field primary school
Community centre garden
Pennington street community garden
Friends and volunteers
Council allotments
Community and public harvest
CPUL

SITE ANALYSIS - LOCAL ACTIVITIES

LEC

24

Strings o breads

This map shows the different activities

which are already going on in the
area. Most of the projects still involve
a small part of the population or a
restricted group of people, but they
are trying to be more popular and
spread out into the population. Anyway
is really good that something is already
happening, because it will be easier
in the future to create a wider grid.
Three different big aims for the future
are represented by CPULs, LEC and
String o breads route which try to
connect every place in a green way.

KEY

Residential
Schools
Industrial
Community services
Student accomodation
Commercial
Church
Meanwood Urban Farm

SITE ANALYSIS - BUILDINGS USE

Green spaces

25

This map shows that the project area is

mainly dominated by residential buildings.
There is an industrial area on the north east,
but it is not that relevant for the project.
There is the Quarry Mount Primary
School and Nursery, with who it could
be interesting to work, as it is exactly in
the centre of this neighborhood. There
are also another nursery (The Tiny Tree)
and a high school (The Leeds Academy).
There are also few shops which help to
make this district more vital but they can be
involve in a bigger project of improvement.

KEY
Semi detached houses
Terraced houses

SITE ANALYSIS - HOUSES TYPOLOGY

Back to back houses

26

From this map we can see that almost

most of the houses in the area are semi
detached or terraced, so in most of the
cases they have the availability of a garden.
Some of them are bigger and well
maintained, others are mainly just a back
or a front garden without enough space
to grow. But nowadays some projects
like Back to Front are becoming more
popular and these little spaces have
the potential to become greener. Concerning to the back to back houses
who dont have a garden at all is important
to develop public green spaces where they
can enjoy outdoor activities.

QUARRY MOUNT
PRIMARY SCHOOL

Design

CONTENTS

Location & context

Sites pictures
Site analysis
Concept plan
Design
Design sensitiviness
Phases
Materials & features
Vegetables
Herbs & fruits trees
Visuals

28

29
30
32
33
34
10
35
36
37
38
39

LOCATION
Leeds city centre

Leeds edible campus

Quarry mount primary school

CONTEXT

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

KEY

29

Residential
Green spaces
Shops
Education
Community places

Sch

PW

From the context's map is clear how

this district is mainly dominated by
residential buildings. This is a great
potential as there is the opportunity to
involve more people and to have more
"workforce" to help to build the new green
spaces.
Furthermore it can be see that there
are few green spaces, which could
represent a great oppurtunity to create
a green corridor from the south to the
north.

HOW THE SCHOOL LOOKS LIKE TODAY...

North playground
Abandoned green space

School buildings

Nursery

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

Basket ground

30

Grey playground

South playground
car park

School buildings
Entrance
Grey playground

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

31

School main facade with grey playground

Grey playground facing the main front

Existing beds on the school edges

Car park on the west side

Kindergartens playground

View from the north east

Car park on the south side

Abandoned green space

Abandoned green space

SITE ANALYSIS
District
roads
Grey playground
Abandoned
green space

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

Green area with trees

32

Nursery

Pedestrian
entrance
Car park

Grey
playground

Car
entrance

Pedestrian
entrance
Pedestrian
entrance

Sun path
Predominant winds from
south-west

Sunpath

Primary school
and kindergarten

CONCEPT PLAN

Bracken edge primary school

Bracken edge primary school

KEY

Green space for

outdoor classroom

Grey playground

School buildings

Green and grey playground

Car park

Car entrance

Bracken edge primary school

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

Pedestrian entrance

KEY
Chicken cage
Compost bin
Sitting area
School buildings
Grey playground
Car park
Edible beds

33
Bracken edge primary school

Bracken edge primary school

Herbs and
perennials beds

DESIGN
Chicken cage

Learn more about animals and

how to interact with them

Understand how the waste of the agriculture and

of the kitchen can be reused to grow again

Fruits trees

Learing while
having fun in
a healthy
environment

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

Outdoor
teaching
space

34

Kindergarten
playground

Compost
collecting
area

Basketball ground

Growing vegetables and

foods principles teaching

Playground

Car park
Beehives

Growing vegetables
and foods
principles teaching
Two different beds types, one for herbs and
perennials which help to make the
school ground much prettier and stimulate the senses, the other one which is
more productive for vegetables growing

To increase the wildlife and

the biodiversity and to make
the children aware about the
food production systems

Playground

The playground
enclosed between the edible
beds has the scope to stimulate
the children and to inspire them
to be closer to the nature

DESIGN SENSITIVENESS
KEY
Car access

Plants which stimulate

Pedestrian accesses and

routes

thanks to their colours, smell, texture and different flavour they can
cause curiosity in the kids and help them to make them knowledge
about plants wider. In addition some of these plants attract insect as
bees and these make it more interesting as the pupils are seduced
also from the buzz.
Near the fruits trees they will have the possibility to observe the birds,
their nest and to listen to their different way of call.

Special play areas

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

entended to be enclosed by plants bed,

to make feel the children confortable and
stimulate the senses

35

View of the south

playground

The main idea concerning this design is to make the children feel
protected by the planting structures, which separate them from the public roads, which could represent in a way a dangerous and unhealthy
environment. The intention is to make them playing and starting a
relation with the plants and mainly with the foods plants at the same time.
The design would like also to induce the parents who come
to the school to pick up the children, to have a better knowledge about the food, and to know how important is to make it
having a first place in the childrens education and in the childrens life.
This design would like to increase the beauty of the schools ground and to
permit also to the residents in the area to enjoy this new way of growing.

PHASES

KEY
1st phase (herbs and fruits trees)
2nd phase (vegetables)
3rd phase (outdoor classrom area
and compost bin)
4th phase (vegetables)
5th phase (chicken cage)

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

6th phase (bee hives)

36

As this is a school project is impossible to imagine that everything will be

realised at the same time, first of all because the childrens workforce is
not enough to do something as big as this design is in once and second
because they dont have enough money, and they need to be helped by
association, volunteers or sustainable networks.
I have predict that this project could be realised in six different phases.
The first one concerns the herbs and perennials beds as they help to
make the school ground prettier both from the inside and the outside
and they dont need a lot of mainteinance.
At the same time some fruits trees could be planted in the green space.
The second phase is the core one and it is represented by the vegetables
beds, how help the children to understand how to plant and harvest
them, to observe their cycle, to understand from where the food come
from and to have a clearer reward of their work.
Once the grey playground is become much greener, the attention can be
foocused on the back green space, which now has already the fruits trees.
It can be improved by the building of an outdoor classroom area, which
give the opportunity to the teachers to promote an alternative way of
teaching and reciprocally give to the children the chance to experience
it and to be closer to the nature. At the same time the project provides
the placement of a compost bin, which permit to reuse the waste of food
for helping the plants growing faster and healthier.
The same area will be provided later with new vegetables beds.
After that a chicken cage will be located with the scope to make the
children understanding processes also about animals and not only about
plants.
At last some beehives will be place on the flat roof, where will be plant
a sort of wildflower meadow, which they can pollinated. This will help to
increase the biodiversity and to make childrens knowledge wider about
this important insects.

MATERIALS and FEATURES

WOOD CHIPS
to have an ecological
pavement, which is softer
than the resin so the pupils
can experience also different
type of materials.

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

PLANTING BEDS
for the kindergarten children

37

WOOD TRUNK
for the outdoor
classroom area

WOODEN CHICKEN CAGE

with an appropriate box
where the eggs can be
taken by the children

WOODEN COMPOST BIN

which help the pupils to
understand the natural cycle
of plants

RESIN BOUND SURFACING

It is the perfect pavement for the playground
has it is made with materals which are shock
absorbent, its ecological as it is water permeable
and it permits to create different texture, so it can
be used as a game in the game

CONCRETE
for the car park

PLANTING BEDS
for the primary school children

PLANTING BED WITH SEATS

This seat typology as been thought for the
borders beds, so when the parents come to take
the children they could have a waiting seat while
the observe the edible plants and they enter in
relation with them

VEGETABLES
Beta vulgaris - Beetroot

Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis - Broccoli

Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata - Cabbage

Daucus carota - Carrot

Brassica oleracea L. var. italica - Cauliflower

Capsicum annuum - Chili pepper

Lactuca sativa - Lettuce

Solanum tuberosum - Potatoes

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

Allium ampeloprasum - Leeks

Raphanus sativus - Radishes

These vegetable has been chosen as they need to be plant and to be

harvest in different time of the year. In this way the activities can cover all
the terms and the pupils have the possibility to see the full plants cycle.
Main of them could be harvest in the school seasons, in order to be
used from the teachers and the staff to show the children what the
vegetable colud become as edible food, so that cycle could be close,
and the food waste can be reused to help new vegetables to grow.

PLANTING

Ca

PLANTING

r
Ca

ge

uliflower

Chili pe

pper

Ca

Lee

ks

ks

Cau

Rad

shes

e
ag
b
ab Ch

ili p

a
Pot

liflow

er

PLANTING

c
Broc
Ca

epp

er

Ca

oli

Beetroot

s
toe

ce
Lettu

HARVESTING

Lee

rot

bba

Cabbage

38

Solanum lycopersicum - Tomatoes

rro

ts

ulif

Ra

di

ce
ttu

Le

HARVESTING
Ca
bb
ag
rots
e
Car
Rad
ishe
s
r
e
w
o
l
f
i
l
u
Ca

low

er

To

oes
mat

rots

oo

tr
ee

Ca

Car

Cab

sh

es

PLANTING

uli

bag

Rad

ishe

flo

we

e
ce

Lettu

HARVESTING
Broc
ge
ot
coli
o
r
abba
t
C
e
Be Ca
Chili
peppe
rro
r
e
w
o
l
r
ts Caulif
Potat
e
oes
uc
s
Lett
dishe
s
e
a
o
t
R
a
m
o
T

HARVESTING
Beet
rots
root
Car

ks

Lee

Lettu

ce

oes

Potat

Ca

bba

s
ishe
Tom

ge

Rad

atoe

FRUITS TREES

HERBS

Perennials
Melissa officinalis

Mentha spicata

Origanum vulgare

Salvia officinalis

Malus domestica

Thymus vulgaris

Foenicuilum vulgare

Chamaemelum nobile

Rosemarinus officinalis

BIRDS

Pyrus communis

Prunus domestica

Turdus merula - Blackbird

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

When to see them: all year round

39

Where to see them: Found everywhere in gardens and countryside and from coasts to hills, although not on the highest
peaks.

Annuals

Turdus pilaris - Fieldfare

Ocimum basilicum

Coriander sativum

When to see them: They begin to arrive from October and

numbers build up as the winter progresses. Birds start to return
in March and some may stay into May.

Allium schoenoprasum

Where to see them: In late winter grass fields, playing fields and
arable fields with nearby trees and hedges are a favourite place

Turdus viscivorus - Mistle trush

When to see them: All year round.

thera
p
ties eutic pro
per-

low
e
c
n
a
n
i
mainta

al
i
n
n
e
per

Where to see them: This is a widespread bird in the UK, found

almost everywhere except the highest, barest ground, and absent from the northern and western isles of Scotland. It can be
seen in woodland, parkland and gardens.

Turdus iliacus - Redwing

When to see them: Migrants arrive from September, with most
in October and November. They leave again in March and April.

HERBACEOUS PLANTS BENEFITS

indi
c
coo ated fo
king
r

ul
f
r
o
l
co

Where to see them: In open countryside it likes hedges and

orchards as well as open, grassy fields. Will come to parks and
gardens. Often joins with flocks of fieldfares.

goo
bor d for
der
s

Turdus philomelos - Song trush

When to see them: All year round.

Where to see them: Woods, hedgerows, parks and gardens
across the UK - wherever there are bushes and trees.

HOW THE SCHOOL WILL LOOK LIKE...

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

before

40

after

before

before

before

after

after

after

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