Why should designers be concerned with agriculture? The seeds of the answer to this question can be found in Neerpede. Nestled amongst the training grounds of RSC Anderlecht lies the last remaining patch of countryside in Brussels, and looming large is the Brussels metropolitan area’s largest urban agriculture project: BoerenBruxselPaysans.

Agriculture is a hot topic within architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning. The 2018–2019 exhibition season was a ‘banner year’ for architectural culture. In Taking the Country’s Side at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Sébastien Marot sees the reconciliation of agriculture and architecture as the most urgent task for designers. To mark the first edition of the Biennale d’Architecture et du Paysage in Versailles, Alexandre Chemetoff’s Le Goût du paysage portrays 24 farmers and their relationship with the landscape. In Capital agricole, Augustin Rosenstiehl reveals historic Paris as a vibrant food city and depicts Île-de-France as a contemporary agricultural metropolis. And in February 2020, Countryside by AMO/Rem Koolhaas will arrive at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. But why should designers now also be concerned with agriculture? The seeds of the answer to this question can be found in Neerpede.