Welcome to the Fertilecity project!

Fertilecity, the sustainable and fertile city, is a concept that first appeared in the first decade of the 21st century. Our vision is a dynamic, sustainable and self-sufficient urban ecosystem. To achieve this goal, we started out by assessing rainwater harvesting in cities and the application of eco-design in public spaces, buildings and furniture. The next step was to integrate horticulture into urban systems and vacant building rooftops. Today, the pandemic and the climate, food and social crises stress the need for alternative production and consumption systems such as Fertilecity.

What do we do?

We investigate how urban agriculture could help us transform cities into more resilient, sustainable and healthier spaces to tackle current and future challenges.

How?

We study the integration of urban agriculture from a technological, environmental, social and economic point of view. We focus on local agriculture, rainwater and wastewater reuse, energy efficiency and waste prevention and recycling.

Who?

The promoters were the research group Sostenipra, which included researchers from the Department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering (DEQBA) and the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, along with the Department of Horticulture at the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) and the Deparment of Geotechnical Engineering and Geosciences at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). Currently, each project involves a multidisciplinary team connecting several academic experts with stakeholders.

Where?

Originally at the ICTA-ICP building (awarded with a LEED-Gold certificate) and the DEQBA’s facilities on campus, as well as several neighborhoods and municipalities in Barcelona’s Metropolitan Area. Currently, each project has its own pilot case studies.

2024-2028

FOODCITYBOOST

“Integrated assessment of urban farming impacts and policies for boosting sustainable urban agricultural development linking urban, peri-urban and rural areas” [+]

2024-2028

2023-2026

FOCUSE

“Food production and provisioning through Circular Urban Systems in European Cities” [+]

2023-2026

2022-2025

MOVE4EDU

“Modular ventilation system integrated within urban food production in educational buildings” [+]
2022-2025

2022-2024

BINAFET

“Building Integrated Agriculture for an eFfective Ecological Transition” [+]
2022-2024

2021-2023

Sirah

“Promoting access to open urban agriculture from the Fertilecity lab to the city”“Building INtegrated Agriculture for an eFfective Ecological Transition” [+]
2021-2023

2021-2022

Fertilecity III

“Resilient municipalities to pandemics through nexus with nearness agriculture, energy, water and waste. From the pilot to the municipality.” [+]
2021-2022

2017-2023

GROOF

“Greenhouses to Reduce CO2 on Roofs” [+]

2017-2023

2017-2019

Fertilecity II

“Integrated rooftop greenhouses: symbiosis of energy, water and CO2 emissions with the building –Towards urban food security in a circular economy” [+]
2017-2019

2014-2016

Fertilecity I

“Agrourban Sustainability: Ecoinnovation in energy, water and CO2 waste flows in buildings for food production” [+]
2014-2016

Visit our facilities on the last Monday of every month

If you want to visit our facilities you can use the form of this link to contact us.

Visits are made on the last Monday of each month, (except August) from 10 am to 12 noon, after confirmation using the form in the Contact section.