Transforming UBC Food Systems & Built Environments - Building Integrated Agriculture (BIA)

Project Team
 

Faculty lead: Anubhav Pratap-Singh, Associate Professor, Food, Nutrition & Health, Faculty of Land and Food Systems

Staff lead: David Speight, Executive Chef & Culinary Director, UBC Food Services

External Partners:

• Perkins&Will (long-standing UBC architecture partner)
• QuantoTech (AgTech company and UBC Food Services vendor)

Funding Partners:

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Program
• BC Centre for Agritech Innovation (BCCAI)

Growing food where campus life happens

This urban agriculture demonstration involves the installation of a custom-built growing pod at UBC’s Vancouver campus. Researchers will work with UBC’s Executive Chef to integrate fresh produce and nutritional insights into dining programs, while the public installation will enable social research and community engagement. The project builds on Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA) research and design co-led by UBC partners—Perkins&Will and QuantoTech—turning campus spaces into living demonstrations of hyperlocal, low-carbon food production and resource circularity.

Meeting food security and climate goals together

Geopolitical instability, climate change, and population growth are intensifying affordability and food insecurity challenges across Canada. While UBC has set ambitious Climate Action Plan goals (CAP2030)—reducing food-related GHG emissions by 50% and diverting 80% of waste by 2030—meeting these targets requires new models that simultaneously advance food security, climate resilience and campus sustainability. This new project advances innovative models that link food security, climate resilience and operational insights, further informing UBC’s CAP2030, Green Building, Zero Waste & Food Systems plans.

From built spaces to circular food systems

By embedding food production into the built environment, the project addresses the need for urban agriculture, shortens supply chains, and promotes circularity and low-waste operations. Providing students with hyperlocal and healthy produce supports a dignified food security model, food literacy engagement, and wellbeing.

Building the blueprint for a resilient campus

By transforming UBC buildings and food operations into urban agriculture demonstration hubs, the project creates visible change, healthier food options, and evidence for policy and design decisions—strengthening UBC’s sustainability leadership while making the UBC campus more resilient, healthy, and innovative. The findings will help inform future design guidelines by demonstrating how year-round food production can be integrated into building operations and public spaces to support local food security, healthy eating, sustainability, and reduced food transportation emissions.

Related Publications 

_{Imam, M., et al. 2025. Resource Circularity Report: Reimagining Cities as Regenerative Ecosystems. Perkins&Will Research Journal.}

_{Perkins&Will. Resource Circularity: Building Integrated Agriculture.}

_{Imam, M., et al. 2025. A carbon-centric evaluation framework for building-integrated agriculture: a comparison of three farm types and building standards. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 9:1533433.}

_{Fiutak, G., Mohammadi, X., Filipczak-Fiutak, M., Jarzębski, M., Sterczyńska, M. & Pratap-Singh, A. 2024. Pre-harvest applications of pulsed light increase vitamin C, chlorophyll, carotenoids and proteins in alfalfa sprouts. Scientia Horticulturae 332:113200.}

_{Lachowicz-Wiśniewska, S., Pratap-Singh, A., Ochmian, I., Kapusta, I., Kotowska, A. & Pluta, S. 2024. Biodiversity in nutrients and biological activities of 14 highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) cultivars. Scientific Reports 14:22063.}