Report on the Integration of Agroecology and Architecture for Sustainable Development

In an era of pronounced ecological instability and food insecurity, architecture is increasingly called upon to address systemic challenges outlined by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Conventional industrial agriculture has been identified as a significant contributor to environmental degradation, undermining progress on SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). Agroecology emerges as a critical counter-practice, offering a regenerative framework that aligns architecture with the cyclical rhythms of nature and principles of sustainability.

Agroecology: A Framework for Achieving the SDGs

Agroecology is both a scientific discipline and a social movement that seeks to create equitable and sustainable food systems. Unlike conventional agriculture, its primary goal is not extraction but the active regeneration of ecosystems, communities, and soil health. This approach directly supports a range of SDGs.

• SDG 2 (Zero Hunger): By promoting biodiversity, local knowledge, and resilient food production, agroecology enhances food security and nutrition.
• SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities): It fosters resilient local food systems and strengthens urban-rural linkages.
• SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production): The framework is built on cyclical processes, treating resources like soil, water, and seed as commons to be stewarded, not commodities to be consumed.
• SDG 15 (Life on Land): It actively works to reverse soil degradation, restore biodiversity, and regenerate terrestrial ecosystems.

Architecture aligned with agroecology becomes a mediator of cultivation and coexistence, designing spaces that support stewardship and participate in the metabolic cycles of food systems.

Architectural Strategies for an Agroecological Future

An agroecological architectural practice shifts focus from creating permanent, static objects to designing adaptive systems that host living processes. The architect’s role evolves from an author of form to a facilitator of ecological and social cycles. This involves creating infrastructures of support that are integral to achieving sustainable development.

Designing the Food Commons

Architectural interventions can support the entire food value chain, from cultivation to consumption, in a manner consistent with the SDGs. This extends beyond rural typologies to include urban and peri-urban infrastructures.

1. Infrastructure for Connection: Designing markets, food hubs, cooperative kitchens, and storage facilities that connect growers with consumers, strengthening local economies and contributing to SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 11.
2. Community-Led Transformation: Projects that reclaim derelict spaces for collective use, turning them into productive landscapes. The Granby Winter Garden by Assemble Studio exemplifies this, transforming a derelict terrace into a shared indoor garden. This project advances SDG 11 by creating inclusive and resilient community spaces.
3. Systemic Integration: Viewing architecture as a frame for collective agency, where maintenance, gardening, and social memory shape space in tune with climate and community, fostering the principles of SDG 12.

Building with the Land: Materiality and Ecological Intelligence

Agroecological architecture draws on vernacular traditions where buildings emerge from the landscape itself, using local materials and collective knowledge. This approach embodies an ecological intelligence that contemporary practice can learn from to address planetary limits.

• Local and Regenerative Materials: Construction with locally sourced materials like earth, bamboo, and thatch reduces the carbon footprint of buildings, aligning with SDG 13, and supports local economies (SDG 8).
• Knowledge Transmission: These practices encode and transmit generational knowledge about climate adaptation and sustainable living, a key component of resilient communities (SDG 11).
• Challenging Extractive Logics: This approach stands in direct opposition to the global construction industry’s extractive model, proposing a mode of building grounded in maintenance, reciprocity, and care, which is central to SDG 12.

Case Studies: Architecture Advancing the SDGs

Several contemporary projects illustrate how architecture can effectively support agroecological principles and contribute to the SDGs.

Case Study 1: Farming Kindergarten, Vietnam (VTN Architects)

This project reframes early childhood education as an agricultural and spatial practice, directly contributing to multiple SDGs.

• SDG 4 (Quality Education): A continuous rooftop garden serves as a living classroom, teaching children about food production and ecological cycles through direct participation.
• SDG 2 (Zero Hunger): The garden provides a source of fresh food for the school, promoting nutritional health and food literacy.
• SDG 13 (Climate Action): The green roof acts as a thermal buffer, reducing the building’s energy needs for cooling.

Case Study 2: Thread Cultural Center, Senegal (Toshiko Mori Architects)

This hybrid typology merges research, agriculture, and education, creating a resilient hub for the local community.

• SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation): Its innovative roof design collects and stores rainwater, providing a crucial resource in a water-scarce region.
• SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities): The center provides a flexible space for community gathering, training, and collaboration, strengthening social cohesion.
• SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production): Built with local materials like earth and bamboo, its design reflects agroecological logics of resilience, resourcefulness, and adaptation.

Case Study 3: Agrocité, France (Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée)

This project demonstrates how agroecological principles can be applied in a temporary urban setting to create a productive commons.

• SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities): Built on temporary urban land with recycled materials, it provides shared resources like tool libraries, compost toilets, and greenhouses, fostering ecological repair and mutual aid.
• SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production): Its lightweight, adaptable, and reversible architecture embodies a post-growth urbanism aligned with cycles of care, decay, and renewal.

Conclusion: Toward an Agroecological Urbanism

The principles of agroecology are increasingly vital for urban areas seeking to build resilience against climate change and supply chain disruptions. An agroecological urbanism reframes the city as an interdependent system where food, energy, and waste circulate in regenerative loops. Architecture’s role is to mediate this relationship, designing infrastructures that integrate food production and waste cycling into the urban fabric.

To root architecture in the soil is to acknowledge the ground as a site of memory, fertility, and life. It requires a shift in architectural values from permanence to responsiveness, and from autonomy to embeddedness. This approach challenges dominant paradigms but offers a necessary path toward an architecture that actively supports cultures of care, regenerates ecosystems, and contributes meaningfully to the global Sustainable Development Goals.

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

1. SDG 2: Zero Hunger

   • The article directly addresses “rising food insecurity” and critiques “industrial farming” for its unsustainability. It champions “agroecology” as a counter-practice to ensure sustainable “food production” and regenerate food systems. Projects like the “Farming Kindergarten” with its rooftop garden for food production are highlighted as solutions.

2. SDG 4: Quality Education

   • The article describes how architecture can facilitate education for sustainable development. The “Farming Kindergarten” in Vietnam is presented as a project that “reframes early childhood education as an agricultural and spatial practice,” allowing children to learn through participation. The “Thread Cultural Center” in Senegal is also mentioned as a space for communities to “gather, train, and collaborate.”

3. SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

   • The article provides a specific example of sustainable water management in the “Thread Cultural Center,” which features a “corrugated roof [that] collects rainwater.” This demonstrates how architectural design can contribute to the efficient use and management of water resources.

4. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

   • The article explores an “agroecological urbanism,” showcasing projects that transform urban spaces. The “Granby Winter Garden” is a “community-led transformation of a derelict Victorian terrace into a shared indoor garden.” The “Agrocité” project creates a community commons on temporary urban land, promoting participatory planning and access to green public spaces.

5. SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

   • The text critiques the “extractive logic” of industrial systems and promotes sustainable building practices. It advocates for using “locally available materials” like thatch, bamboo, and adobe, and “recycled materials” as seen in the Agrocité project. The concept of designing for “decay” and “reuse” directly challenges conventional production and consumption patterns in construction.

6. SDG 13: Climate Action

   • The article links “industrial farming” directly to “climate change” and presents agroecological architecture as a form of climate adaptation and mitigation. Designs that provide “thermal buffering” (Farming Kindergarten) or use “thick earthen walls and porous bricks [to] regulate temperature” (Thread Cultural Center) are examples of strengthening resilience to climate impacts.

7. SDG 15: Life on Land

   • A central theme is combating the effects of industrial farming, such as “depleted soils” and “fragmented habitats.” Agroecology is framed as a practice that “regenerates ecosystems,” promotes “biodiversity,” and focuses on “soil regeneration.” The article calls for an architecture that “builds with the land” to restore and maintain terrestrial ecosystems.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

1. SDG 2: Zero Hunger

   • Target 2.4: “By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems… and that progressively improve land and soil quality.” The article’s focus on agroecology as a method to “regenerate ecosystems, communities, and the soil itself” directly aligns with this target.

2. SDG 4: Quality Education

   • Target 4.7: “By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development…” The description of the Farming Kindergarten, where children learn about agriculture and ecology through “participation, and sensory attention,” is a direct application of this target.

3. SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

   • Target 6.4: “By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors…” The rainwater harvesting system of the Thread Cultural Center is a clear example of architectural design contributing to water-use efficiency.

4. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

   • Target 11.3: “By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management…” The “Granby Winter Garden” and “Agrocité” projects, which are described as “community-led” and involving “community labor,” exemplify this target.
   • Target 11.7: “By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces…” The transformation of a “derelict” terrace into a “shared indoor garden” is a direct fulfillment of this target.

5. SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

   • Target 12.2: “By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources.” The call to build with “locally available materials” and the ethos of working “with what is already there” supports this target.
   • Target 12.5: “By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.” The use of “recycled materials” in the Agrocité project and the design philosophy of embracing “decay” and “reuse” are directly relevant.

6. SDG 13: Climate Action

   • Target 13.1: “Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards…” Architectural designs that “regulate temperature” and provide “thermal buffering” are practical examples of building adaptive capacity to climate change, particularly rising temperatures.

7. SDG 15: Life on Land

   • Target 15.3: “By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil…” The article’s emphasis on agroecology’s ability to counter “depleted soils” and achieve “soil regeneration” directly addresses this target.
   • Target 15.5: “Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity…” The promotion of agroecology, which is “rooted in biodiversity,” is a direct response to this target.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

1. For SDG 2 (Zero Hunger)

   • Implied Indicator: Implementation of agricultural practices that regenerate soil, such as those used in agroecology. The article mentions “soil regeneration” as a key outcome.
   • Implied Indicator: Area of land dedicated to sustainable food production within architectural projects, such as the “continuous rooftop garden” of the Farming Kindergarten.

2. For SDG 4 (Quality Education)

   • Implied Indicator: The number of educational programs or facilities that integrate sustainable practices into their curriculum and design, as exemplified by the “Farming Kindergarten” and the training at the “Thread Cultural Center.”

3. For SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation)

   • Mentioned Indicator: The presence and capacity of rainwater collection systems in buildings, as described in the “Thread Cultural Center” project.

4. For SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities)

   • Implied Indicator: The degree of community participation in the planning, design, and maintenance of projects, as highlighted in the “community-led” Granby Winter Garden.
   • Implied Indicator: The area of repurposed or reclaimed derelict land for green and community use.

5. For SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production)

   • Mentioned Indicator: The proportion of “locally available” and “recycled materials” used in construction projects.
   • Implied Indicator: The adoption of design principles that plan for a building’s entire life cycle, including “reuse” and natural “decay.”

6. For SDG 13 (Climate Action)

   • Mentioned Indicator: The use of passive design strategies for climate adaptation, such as “thermal buffering” and natural temperature regulation through material choice (“thick earthen walls”).

7. For SDG 15 (Life on Land)

   • Implied Indicator: Measured improvements in soil quality and biodiversity on land managed through agroecological principles. The article emphasizes moving from “monocultures” to “biodiversity.”
   • Implied Indicator: The restoration of degraded land through integrated architectural and ecological projects.

4. Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: archdaily.com