PRATO URBAN JUNGLE - Via Turchia Urban Farming

Prato Urban Jungle is an innovative plan of urban forestry, greening and efficiency improving realized for Prato city with the aim of redefining the relationship between city, environment, resources and inhabitants. Funded by the European program 2019 UIA – Urban innovative action, the plan includes the renewal of abandoned or degraded urban areas, planting of trees and plants, the creation of community gardens and orchards, the conversion of mineral surfaces into green filters and the phyto-remediation of contaminated areas. Within the masterplan of Prato Urban Jungle, PNAT is working on two pilot areas: via Turchia social housing and Macrolotto 0 new city marketplace.

In Via Turchia social housing, PNAT will create an innovative high-performance greenhouse for growing vegetables at km0, which will be both an engine for the local economy and a place for community living. Located in the inner square between the high-density buildings, it will be accessible to the inhabitants and will provide spaces where the community can meet, buy vegetables and get closer to sustainable agriculture and ecology. Hydroponics and rainwater reuse technologies will ensure the sustainable production of large quantities of vegetables. The residents, grouped in an association, will manage the greenhouse in turn, learning practices and technologies of cultivation and benefiting from a training course at work that will then find an outlet in activities related to nursery and green management. The marketing of products will provide income for workers and resources for the maintenance of facilities. Thanks to the large high-yeld greenhouse, the biophilic redevelopment of the courtyard will be at the same time a project of social innovation, able to generate food, work, training and income for the community of the neighborhood.