Barriera Fertile
Growing food, community and new circular economies.
← Back to projectsAn urban laboratory for food and resource cycles.
Barriera Fertile is a project under development by Squadra Quadra APS, designed to test in Barriera di Milano an urban regeneration model combining food, environment, education, self-construction and neighbourhood participation.
The project grows out of the experience of Aurora Fertile, adapting its principles to a new territorial model shaped around the spaces and communities of Barriera di Milano.
The idea is to create an urban laboratory for food and resource cycles: a place where cultivation, material transformation, training and making can coexist and become accessible activities for local residents.
A geodesic greenhouse-laboratory.
One of the central elements under study is a wooden geodesic dome, conceived as a small neighbourhood infrastructure: greenhouse, workshop, learning space and meeting place.
The structure can be designed around the available site, using wood and natural materials, modular construction systems and different covering solutions according to its intended uses.
The dome will therefore not be merely a container but part of the educational project: a structure that can be built, observed, used and transformed, making self-construction and knowledge of materials part of the experience.
Cultivating without separating.
Different cultivation systems may coexist in and around the greenhouse:
urban gardens · permaculture · edible gardens · agroforestry · hydroponic cultivation
and, in a later experimental phase, aquaponic systems.
The aim is not to select a single technology, but to create a place where different food-production methods can be compared in terms of applicability, resource use and educational value.
Images drawn from the GeoDoma portfolio ↗.
From residue to resource.
Composting is one of the elements linking Barriera Fertile to Aurora Fertile.
Compatible organic residues can become material for compost production and soil regeneration. Properly treated plant materials and woody residues can complement them as carbon-rich structural material.
The aim is not merely to manage waste, but to use it as a tool for understanding how an urban ecosystem works.
Building with what we have.
Barriera Fertile may include a self-construction and circular woodworking laboratory to build gardens, composters, furniture, lightweight structures and installations through material recovery, maintenance, transformation and reuse.
The construction component may extend to experimentation with bio-building techniques, wood and natural materials, and simple objects serving the activities of the space.
A laboratory for learning by doing.
Building the dome, creating gardens, composting, woodworking, bio-building and cultivation systems can become workshops and educational activities for young people, families, schools, associations and local residents.
The approach is learning through experience: not just explaining sustainability, but building it, cultivating it and testing it together.
A project open to the neighbourhood.
Barriera Fertile is not intended to create a system separate from existing local initiatives. The project is designed to be built together with organisations, residents and skills already active in Barriera di Milano.
food · water · organic matter · wood · soil · energy · skills · community
Collaborations and expertise
The project is under development
Squadra Quadra APS is identifying a suitable space in Barriera di Milano where the experiment can begin and the project can be developed together with local organisations.
The final configuration - greenhouse size, cultivation systems, gardens, composting, workshops and educational activities - will be developed according to the site and the collaborations activated.