Agritecture Interviewed the winners of last year’s Urban Greenhouse Challenge. Wageningen University & Research challenged students to step outside their comfort zone. Their task was to develop an urban farming project for a former prison, working in interdisciplinary teams.

AGR: Why did you decide to participate in the Urban Greenhouse Challenge? 

When I was a first-year master student at Wageningen University and Research, I was excited to undertake extracurricular activities to understand the impact my profession will create. The Urban Greenhouse Challenge was a project that had direct implications on people’s quality of life by re-designing the Bijlmer Bajes into a circular, socially inclusive and financially profitable urban food production facility. 

I first heard about the Challenge during the introduction days for freshmen and decided to visit the info sessions. It was hard to decide whether -- as an Economics BSc -- I have the right skills to participate, or whether I have enough experience to help designing an urban greenhouse. 

Once our team was established, participating was not a question. The passion of the team members and the momentum of the non-profit organization we created, GreenWURks, made the project very exciting. I felt very involved. We wanted to create a greenhouse that has a positive and direct implications on people’s quality of life by supplying people with sustainable and healthy local food.

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