AU Design Strategies

Interface

Designing the AU interface should occur on several levels:

• Site planning: to determine patterning (e.g. farm fingers into the urban)
• Programming- to plan what activities will occur in the edge area (e.g. community garden, bird watching, walking/cycling path)
• Street Design + Architectural details: to visually and psychologically connect the urban streets, open space and built form to the agricultural areas.
• Conventionally, agriculture and people have been separated with large buffer areas. With the intention to integrate agriculture and human settlement, elements of the interface design must include:
• Permeability between urban and agricultural (e.g. Bridges, paths, views, seating areas…etc)
• Passive recreation opportunities (e.g. winding path along hedgerow or drainage canal)
• Connectivity from urban to agriculture (e.g. pedestrian route from and urban park out to community garden in the agricultural area.