Debra Solomon

Artist-Researcher

Debra Solomon is an artist-researcher working on multispecies urbanism as PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam in the Urban Planning and Designing Urban Experience departments. Solomon's research introduces the term multispecies urbanism to describe urban development framed by natural world concerns. In her recent essay Soil in the City: the socio-environmental substrate1 she presents inter-relational engagements between urban natures and civil society. Multispecies urbanism promotes policy innovation for natural world stewardship, recognising humans as participants within a more-than-human habitat. Solomon is founder of artist-activist collective ' Urbaniahoeve ' (the city as our farmyard) producing public space urban food forests and stewardship training. For more than a decade Urbaniahoeve's expertise comprises soil building, food and ecosystem production, climate adaptation, biodiversity and habitat re/generation. Wageningen University (WUR) soil scientists defined the Urbaniahoeve topsoils and public space food forest project locations as "paradise on Earth" in terms of biodiversity. In 2017, Urbaniahoeve was joined by Renate Nollen. Among its new projects is a 55 hectare food forest in Amsterdam Zuidoost's K-borough.