Transformability of Urban Open Spaces: Edible Trees’ stewardship a strategy for (re) integrating edible trees in the urban environment
Arlinda Shequiri

The aim of the research is to assess the (re) integration process of edible trees in the urban environment. Despite growing awareness about the role of urban agriculture in the context of biodiversity and food security for cities, urban edible trees in public spaces remain isolated and episodic, ultimately unintegrated into green infrastructure.  Edible trees expose particular challenges in the urban context, both for their complexity and their uncertainty of placement. Only a few initiatives in Europe are working to incorporate edible trees in the urban environment. If efforts increase, we have the potential to prevent the extinction of important species.

Arlinda Sheqiri is currently Ph.D. student in Politecnico di Milano University. She holds a BSc. Degree in Architecture and Spatial Planning and an MSc. Degree in Architecture (Sustainable Architecture of Large Scale Projects) from Politecnico di Milano University. She is involved in teaching courses on designing sustainable and smart cities, and urban design. She pursues her PhD research on transformability of urban open spaces since October 2014. Her main research interests include the urban-food nexus, biodiversity, and community stewardship.