ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a teaching experience that focuses on a major challenge for the desert region of Qatar, namely the production of food. Also addressing the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and food insecurity in the architecture curriculum, it describes graduate and undergraduate courses in architecture and urbanism delivered over a period of seven years at Qatar University. On the theme of Food Urbanism in Drylands, this contribution lays out a series of experiments at different scales, where students design or transform architectural and urban landscapes to make them productive through vertical farming, community gardening, edible boulevards, urban farms and rooftop farming. The pedagogical approach is deeply rooted in sustainability, and includes systems thinking and circular ecologies on the food-water-energy-waste nexus. It places an emphasis on soil and biodiversity, and the landscape potential of urban agriculture, as well as on indigenous knowledge and plants. The outcomes include an increase in the integration of food production systems and landscapes in student projects, and a vision of Qatar University as an “edible campus” and a “living laboratory” for the food-water-energy-waste nexus.
