Farm Hub
| Function / Domain: | Agriculture, landscape development, housing |
| Illustration of: | Key idea for system innovation |
Context
Two important trends are occurring in rural areas: many Dutch farmers are stopping and many people are leaving the countryside to live in urban areas. InnovationNetwork, the Dutch network organisation established to promote system innovations in relation to agriculture and landscape, recognised that this offered opportunities for landscape development and for further reinforcement of the agricultural structure
In its search for ways of exploiting these possibilities, it came upon a project by two landscape architects. They had developed a concept that would address both the agricultural structure and landscape development. The InnovationNetwork developed their idea into the concept of the Farm hub. Farm Hubs consist of paths and planted greenery that connect farms together. With their tentacles of paths and greenery, these 'internodal arteries' organise the landscape and thus serve as an ordering principle in the countryside.
Key idea for system innovation
The key idea for system innovation consists of connecting consolidation in agriculture and rural development, by re-establishing the link between business enterprise in a small-scale landscape, life on farms and landscape development. A new aspect is that residents take responsibility for managing and maintaining the characteristic planted greenery that shapes the internodal arteries.
The key idea is now being put into practice: for example in the municipality of Tubbergen in association with the province of Overijssel and the InnovationNetwork.
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