A horticulture project in a vulnerable neighborhood wins the Urban Farm Challenge

Organized since 2019 by the University of Bologna in collaboration with ICTA-UAB and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the challenge has brought together more than 750 students from around the world since its inception. The 2026 challenge invited participants to transform a social housing area in the Sant Cosme neighborhood of El Prat de Llobregat into a dynamic and vibrant environment through agricultural and architectural solutions.

Nine student teams presented their proposals in the grand final held at the ICTA-UAB headquarters. The winning team, made up of eight students from universities in Italy, Egypt, Sweden, and Germany, took first prize with a project that proposes creating green areas in the interior spaces of the social housing blocks in the seventh phase of Sant Cosme. The proposal includes soil-filled planter boxes for producing vegetables for local consumption, hydroponic units built from recycled PVC pipes, and a space with vertical plant structures where residents can sit and enjoy leisure activities.

"We are going to transform a pedestrian route into something linked to therapeutic horticulture. We will plant aromatic herbs on one side and colorful flowers on the other. In this way, it will be a mix of plants, architecture, and social space, all integrated," explained Subashni Palanisamy, a master's student in horticultural sciences at the University of Bologna and one of the members of the winning team.

What distinguished the proposal from the others was its focus on the mental well-being of residents, beyond mere food production. "We are not focusing only on plants. We are also focusing on people's mood and attitude, because they are surrounded by violence and other problems. We would like to transform them by introducing therapeutic horticulture as the main idea," said Palanisamy.

The student, originally from India, was inspired by two specific experiences: a vegetable-growing program in prisons in her country and a project developed by her professor in an Italian hospital, in which hospitalized patients participated in cultivation activities with positive results for their emotional well-being.

The winners receive the Young Mind Award from the International Society for Horticultural Sciences (ISHS), which includes a one-year membership for each team member in this international scientific organization.

All projects were presented to the City Council of El Prat de Llobregat, but their possible implementation depends on the availability of public funding and the municipality's urban planning strategy, as it was the council that proposed the site for the challenge. According to the team, the next step also involves listening to the residents of Sant Cosme themselves: understanding their vision, their needs, and their willingness to embrace the proposed changes.

According to the Urban Farm organizers, the central objective of the challenge was to design a vibrant and multidisciplinary space that incorporates sustainable agriculture, promotes social interaction and access to fresh food, and helps reduce the stigma associated with social housing by giving residents back control over their environment.

The winning students of the Urban Farm Challenge 2026 are Nicolás Altimiras (University of Bologna, Italy), Farida Amr (Cairo University, Egypt), Tárnok András (University of Bologna, Italy), Kaushiki Brahma (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden), Mitchell Mahachi (Technical University of Munich, Germany), Mishkat Omer (Cairo University, Egypt), Subashni Palanisamy (University of Bologna, Italy), and Fatehveer Singh (University of Bologna, Italy).