_ EdiCitNet | Productive Urban Landscapes

The 2nd day of the meeting was organised by project partner Prinzessinnengärten on their site at Neue Jakobifriedhof. (source: Prinzessinnengärten 2023)

Final project meeting of the EdiCitNet project

During the last two days, the final meeting of the Horizon2020 EdiCitNet innovation action project took place in Berlin. The more than 30 consortium partners joined once more to reflect on the successes, challenges and failures of this international project, funded by the EU under their programme group “Smart and Sustainable Cities” in the subject…

Image: This food map was created for and with the Municipality as part of a participatory process aimed at making Carthage an 'edible city'. (source: Katrin Bohn with Ian Bailey, University of Brighton, and City Team Carthage 2021)

City Team Carthage finalises food advocacy note

Since Spring 2021, Katrin Bohn and her small University of Brighton team, have been advising the City of Carthage, Tunisia, in their efforts to establish sustainable urban planning strategies with a food system focus. On 5th April 2023, the City approved one of two important documents aimed at supporting this process: an advocacy note laying…

At the vineyard of the Biotechnical School in Šempeter, students and researchers observe field of 10 rows of grapevine each planted with local varieties and treated differently. (source: Katrin Bohn 2022)

How to become an edible city: Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia

The Municipality of Šempeter-Vrtojba (6,300 inhabitants) is located on the western edge of Slovenia, right next to the Italian border, only 150 km from Venice, and is characterised by vibrant green woodlands, vineyards, fields and meadows. The Vrtojba-Bilje knolls, along with a large part of the surrounding plains offer optimum conditions for viticulture, fruit farming,…

A complex network of interdependencies between societal challenges (top), urban spaces (middle) and food system activities (bottom) has been identified during the food and opportunity mapping process. (source: REACT 2022)

How to become an edible city: Carthage, Tunisia

On Wednesday 27th April, Katrin Bohn was invited by the Mayor of Carthage to the first meeting of a new investigation as part of the Tunisian city’s efforts to become an “edible city”. Within the ‘transition process of the City of Carthage towards a resilient and sustainable urban system’, the Municipality of Carthage, represented by…

Final draft of the opportunity mapping diagram An Edible City strategy for Carthage (source: University of Brighton 2022)

Mapping food opportunities for Carthage, Tunisia

Today saw the completion of an important stage in our food-focused masterplanning for the City of Carthage, Tunisia. In a virtual meeting organised by the Institute of Organic Farming at BOKU University Vienna, Katrin Bohn and Ian Bailey (University of Brighton) handed over to the Carthage City Team the results of an 8-months-long participatory design…

The first stage of work compares the general characteristics of the two cities in relation to food. (source: UoB using material selected by City Team Carthage 2021)

City teams of Carthage and Sant Feliu de Llobregat meet to exchange on local food

Last week, the interdisciplinary teams of city officials, local food initiatives, research organisations and members of the public of Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Spain) and Carthage (Tunisia) met online to discuss the status quo of their local food systems. The meeting was co-led by researchers from the Institute of Organic Farming at BOKU University Vienna…

Aerial view of Carthage, today a borough of Tunis (source: University of Brighton and www 2021)

Supporting Carthage to become an ‘edible city’

Today, Katrin and her team at the University of Brighton began their consultancy and design research with the Tunisian City of Carthage in a first (online) co-design meeting. This Spring, we have joined the Carthaginian city team – consisting of local council representatives, research institutes and interested citizens – to co-develop with the local community…

Bohn&Viljoen developed a matrix to compare existing urban agriculture repositories some of which already contain tools. (source: André Viljoen 2020)

Finding the right tools for implementing urban agriculture

Yesterday, André Viljoen and Katrin Bohn met with an interdisciplinary group of agronomists, scientists and urban designers that is developing an online Toolbox ‘to promote knowledge sharing, networking and learning among people involved or willing to get involved with food-related initiatives’ as part of the EU-funded EdiCitNet project. The group, led by the Catalan Institute…

As part of the project, the Letchworth City Team started to map the potential of existing and future food-growing spaces. (source: Amélie André 2020)

Masterplanning for food in Letchworth Garden City

Earlier this month, the Annual General Meeting of the Horizon2020 project EdiCitNet happened online. The University of Brighton, represented by Katrin Bohn and André Viljoen, is one of the members of this multi-national consortium, bringing their expertise to food-centred master planning in 6 international towns and cities with a focus on Great Britain’s Letchworth Garden…

Explaining the components of the EdiCitNetToolbox (source: Katrin Bohn 2020)

First presentation of an online toolbox for edible cities

Last week saw the first webinar about the EdiCitnet Toolbox web interface, one of two pillars of the EdiCitNet Toolbox, an online platform aimed ‘to promote knowledge sharing, networking and learning among people involved or willing to get involved with food-related initiatives’. The development of the toolbox is being led by the Catalan Institute for…

The Wynd, a pedestrianised retail and artisan-workshop street in the centre of Letchworth, is lined with two rows of fruit trees. (source: Katrin Bohn 2020)

How do we showcase the Garden City of the Future?

This is one of the central questions that a local team of city representatives, food activists and design researchers explored during last week’s two-day working meeting in Letchworth, UK. Joined by Vic Borrill, Brighton&Hove Food Partnership, and André Viljoen and Katrin Bohn, University of Brighton, as their consultants, the local team discussed visions for (food-)productive…

The Catalan City of Girona contains many functioning urban agricultural sites such as this food-productive garden at the Monastery San Daniel. (source: Katrin Bohn 2019)

EU project explores “edible city solutions” for productive urban landscapes

Katrin Bohn took part in two meetings of the European Horizon 2020 innovation action project EdiCitNet which were held back to back in Girona, Spain, hosted by the University of Girona and the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA). For the first three days, participants from 7 international cities – Berlin, Carthage, Montevideo, Letchworth, Lomé,…

Aerial view of Letchworth Garten City (source: Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation www 2019)

Bohn and Viljoen are working with the world’s first Garden City

‘Letchworth Garden City is the world’s first Garden City, created as a solution to the squalor and poverty of urban life in Britain in the late 19th Century. Based on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard as published in his book of 1898 Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Reform Letchworth Garden City inspired town planning across…

Andernach’s new EdiCitNet food growing site is being prepared. (image: City of Andernach 2019)

EdiCitNet working meeting in Germany’s first Edible City

EdiCitNet, the H2020 European innovation action project Katrin Bohn and André Viljoen are involved in, held a 4-day working meeting in Andernach, Germany’s first Edible City and partner in the project. Consortium members from 8 international cities as well as specialists met to present, discuss and develop ideas of how to integrate urban agriculture and…

(Spatial) opportunity map for London's Eastern expansion zone, the Thames Gateway (source: Bohn&Viljoen 2004)

Knowledge on opportunity and food mapping to be shared internationally

Katrin Bohn has prepared two short lectures to be shown to an international audience of city planners, urban food practitioners and food and water researchers early next month. The lectures use knowledge gathered by Bohn&Viljoen over a number of years through their practice-based CPUL design research and condense it into bite-sized information indented to trigger…

Katrin Bohn and André ViIjoen will bring their productive urban landscape and urban agriculture expertise to this European action/implementation project. (source: Katrin Bohn 2019)

EdiCitNet project starts in Europe

Kick-off meeting in Berlin! Katrin Bohn and André Viljoen will participate in EdiCitNet, a multidisciplinary innovation action funded by the EU under their Horizon 2020 programme call group “Smart and Sustainable Cities” in the subject area of “nature-based solutions”. The University of Brighton is one of over 30 partners having jointly bid for funding to…