This presentation draws from research conducted at an ongoing project, ‘SPLACH – Spatial Planning for Change’, which aims to inform a sustainable transition of urban planning in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, towards improved urban metabolism. Among drivers of such transition are emerging concepts on the aesthetics and productive capacity of urban territories, as well as grassroots movements and social initiatives, which are already using those emerging concepts. Here, we confront the concept of ‘Continuous productive urban landscape’ (Viljoen et al, 2005) – in which urban green-structures are reserved for agricultural uses – with the important contribution of Guerrilla Gardening (Reynolds, 2016) and other creative initiatives associated to agricultural practices (Cabannes and Raposo, 2013). Our analysis is focused on selected neighbourhoods in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, highlighting the relations between agricultural uses and the layout of the urban landscape (Steel, 2008 and Parham, 2015). These present important challenges for spatial planning policies and sustainable urban metabolism, while also questioning what activities and ‘images’ are suited for cities. Thus, urban agriculture – official and non-official – is important for both studying and intervening in the city, because it uniquely articulates the metabolic and the aesthetics. Given the positive impact of agriculture in urban metabolism, residential neighbourhoods may play a fundamental role in a sustainable urban transition (Talen, 2018), particularly their green-structures, making this a privileged area for collaboration between architects, planners, artists and municipal agents.

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Landscape Art,Urban Agriculture,Residential Neighbourhood,Urbanism.