Research Article

Urban agriculture in Kathmandu as a catalyst for the civic inclusion of migrants and the making of a greener city

  • Maurice Mitchell ,
  • Amara Roca Iglesias
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  • CASS School of Art, Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan University, UK

Received date: 03 Apr 2019

Revised date: 22 Jul 2019

Accepted date: 28 Jul 2019

Published date: 15 Mar 2020

Copyright

2019 2019 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Abstract

This research explores the opportunities offered for the creation of a green city on the recently secured Bagmati riverbanks in Kathmandu, which is subject to rapid inward migration from landless rural farmers. The research asks what architectural theory and practice can contribute to this setting to support the fit between emergent bottom-up initiatives and topdown city investments. To this end, it deepens and extends loose fit theory, research methods, and reflective practices to investigate latent possibilities, assemble a narrative of embedded change, and create spatial imaginaries of topographical change on the Bagmati riverbanks. Moreover, it argues that architectural theory and practice can play a vital role in integrating migrants into civic institutions and helping generate a highly green city by making the relationships between setting and occupant explicit, stimulating and representing alternative imaginaries, and framing a civic discourse.

Cite this article

Maurice Mitchell , Amara Roca Iglesias . Urban agriculture in Kathmandu as a catalyst for the civic inclusion of migrants and the making of a greener city[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2020 , 9(1) : 169 -190 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2019.07.007

Outlines

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