The hop farm, Uppsala city library
Principal: Uppsala library
Design vegetation: Helena Garnfors (Underground garden agency), Philip Weiss & Martin Gustafsson
Start year: 2025
Surface: 800 kvm
The Humlegården project includes the two courtyards at Uppsala City Library. The courtyards are designed with edibility, aesthetics and sustainability as a foundation – a place to harvest, taste and interact with nature. Here the conditions are created for developing an ecological literacy, where the understanding of the interaction between man and ecosystem grows through experience.
The front courtyard is well-trafficked and here the existing vegetation in the form of a linden and a horse chestnut as well as climbing plants in the shady corners of the courtyard has been supplemented with, among other things, dwarf walnut, mullbär, kiwi and many different edible perennials as well as a flowering ground layer for pollinators.
The far courtyard is located on an underground garage and is therefore actually a roof planting. Here are parts of the existing tree- and the shrub layer preserved and supplemented with trees such as apricot, plums and fluff cherries as well as many berry bushes and both famous and unusual edible perennials, such as salad aralia and snowdrop onions.
Total has over 100 species of edible plants planted and as many species are found in the flowering soil layer.
The design invites future meetings and knowledge exchange, with space for courses and tours for both young and old. The plant choices arouse curiosity and at the same time contribute to a rich biological diversity and a robust ecological resilience.
The library was awarded the Municipal Board's quality award 2026 for the implementation of the Humlegården project.
Read more: https://bibliotekuppsala.se/humlegarden#/
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