What Does Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL) Mean?
The term continuous productive urban landscape (CPUL) is an urban design concept that incorporates growing food into the design of cities, or city planning.
A CPUL is achieved by joining together existing open spaces and disused sites into a linear landscape that connects more people to the countryside.
The continuous productive urban landscape, therefore, becomes a corridor for growing edible crops where there was previously just empty lots or unkempt green spaces.
The term 'continuous productive urban landscape' was coined in 2004 by Bohn & Viljoen Architects. At this time, the idea of growing edible crops within urban spaces was considered unusual.
Maximum Yield Explains Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL)
Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL) is a design concept that supports the logical introduction of inter-linked productive landscapes into cities as an extremely important factor of sustainable urban infrastructure. The main part of the continuous productive urban landscape idea is the making of multi-functional open urban area networks, including the urban agriculture that complements, improves, and supports the environment which is built.
The concept of continuous productive urban landscape grew out of design research that explored the role of urban agriculture within urban design. It was first articulated and in 1998 by the firm Bohn & Viljoen Architects.
The concept of CPUL has received international attention and entered into the contemporary design courses after the publication of Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes: Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities (ed. Andre Viljoen, Architectural Press: 2005).
Andre Viljoen and Katrin Bohn are currently developing the concept of CPUL within the university through the assistance of Bohn & Viljoen Architects. Recent work has focused on dissemination and development of the concept through international exhibitions, conferences, cross-disciplinary research, and live projects at a range of scales.
