Sustainable campus agriculture: the case of Hacettepe University Beytepe Campus

In order to create a sustainable urban environment, it is very important to organize the infrastructure, socio-economic development, resources and policies in a way that contributes to the city's metabolism, quality of life and social consciousness. The fact that the lands in the city increase in value by offering them to activities with economic returns and the far away of agricultural activities from the city periphery makes it difficult for societies living in urban centers to access healthy food. To be experienced as intense in Turkey this problem is to encourage cities to convert it to a local solution. In this context, architectural production and urban planning are important in order to make "agriculture" activity in cities. In addition to meeting the food needs of the society at the local scale, urban agriculture has positive effects in different dimensions such as environmental sustainability, health, nutrition and social interaction. Creating renewable green areas in city centers will make it possible for sustainable development and agriculture to become both individual and social goals. Based on this perspective, the agricultural area established on the Beytepe campus of Hacettepe University demonstrates both a work towards becoming a green campus and a collective life commune structure towards the users of the campus. Access to healthy food, environmental awareness and analyzing and synthesizing the urban-rural dialectic with the philosophy of 'pluralism' can be listed as the achieved goals of this project. The aim of this study is to analyze the Beytepe Campus Agriculture Project in Hacettepe University in the challenging topography and microclimate of Ankara city, within the framework of sustainable goals.