Carrot City - Toronto (2008-Present)

The Carrot City Initiative examines how design at all scales can enable the production of food in the city. The focus is on how the increasing interest in growing food within the city, supplying food locally, and food security in general, is changing urban design and built form. Carrot City showcases projects from around the world. The exhibit contains a range of projects, some recently completed or in progress, and others intended as visionary, speculative design proposals. The featured projects are the work of professional designers, students and people from all walks of life.

The travelling exhibit was first mounted in February 2009 in Toronto. It has since been shown in a number of venues in over 20 cities across the globe. Carrot City exhibits have been translated into a number of languages. A major website (www.carrotcity.org (external link, opens in new window) ) containing materials from the exhibit and other relevant content has been set up. A book (opens in new window)  based on this initiative was published in September of 2011 by Monacelli Press.

References

Gorgolewski, M., Komisar, J., and Nasr, J. (2011). Carrot City: Creating Places for Urban Agriculture. New York: Monacelli Press. 240 pp.

Gorgolewski, M., Komisar, J., and Nasr, J. (2015). Resilient City = Carrot City: Urban Agriculture Theories and Designs. (Mark Gorgolewski, June Komisar and Joe Nasr). In Integrated Urban Agriculture: Precedents, Practices, Prospects, ed. Robert France, Karen Landman and Luc Mougeot. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Komisar, J. (2014). Displaying urban agriculture: From Garden City to Carrot City. In Exhibitions and the Development of Modern Planning Culture, ed. Robert Freestone and Marco Amati, 277-291. Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate.

Nasr, J., Komisar, J., and Gorgolewski, M. (2014). Urban Agriculture as Ordinary Urban Practice: Trends and Lessons. In Second Nature Urban Agriculture – Designing Productive Cities, ed. Katrin Bohn and Andre Viljoen. London, Routledge.

Nasr, J and Komisar, J (2012). Integration of food and agriculture into urban planning and design practices. In Sustainable Food Planning: evolving theory and practice, ed. Andre Viljoen and Han Wiskerke. Wageningen, the Neth.: Wageningen Academic Publishers.

Bhatt, V and Farah, L. M. (guest ed.). (2009). Designing for Food and Agriculture: Recent Explorations at Ryerson University. Special issue on "Designing Edible Landscapes," Open House International, vol. 34, no. 2: 61-70. 

Updated January 2018