Productive Urban Landscapes

Research and practice around the CPUL design concept

The hardcover version of the Urban Food Mapping book (source: Mikey Tomkins, 2024)

INVITE: The Urban Food Mapping online book launch

Our new book is out! To celebrate, we would like to invite you to the public online LAUNCH of this collaborative book project! And to catch all our contributors from around the globe, there will be 2 online launches: Thursday 21st of March 8am-9am UK time (= 9:00-10:00 CET) at this link (https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MjVkM2RmMzUtYjgyZS00ZTAzLThkYTItOWUwOWVhOGMzNTRh%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22a900bb90-94fe-4658-8b34-dd72084c5064%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22fc4e2f0c-5dec-4e57-8086-2fa74fd2f738%22%7d) and Friday…

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The CPUL Opportunity Mapping Method explained (source: Bohn&Viljoen Architects [2012] with Ian Bailey, University of Brighton, 2021)

Coming soon: A book chapter on urban design for food

One of the contributions to Katrin Bohn’s and Mikey Tomkins’ edited volume Urban Food Mapping: Making visible the Edible City will be Katrin’s chapter on food opportunity mapping. Fully titled Food in urban design and planning: The CPUL Opportunity Mapping Method, the chapter starts of from the observation that sustainable urban food planning is still…

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The neighbourhood garden is part of a more-than-human vision of future cities. (source: Katrin Bohn 2023)

Mühlhausen guests visit community gardens in Berlin

It is always an experience to visit a community garden in Berlin, Germany. Last week, Katrin led a tour of  Spiel/Feld Marzahn and Prinzessinnengarten Moritzplatz for representatives of the city administration of Mühlhausen/Thür. The Thuringian town in the centre of Germany plans a community garden as part of their 5-year-long Smart City urban development project….

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The project focuses on different urban contexts: peripheral areas, complex urban context in “Greater Cairo” and new city. (source: TU Berlin Habitat Unit www 2023)

Towards green(er) Egyptian cities

‘Towns and cities in Egypt are growing at an alarming rate, with increasing population and urbanization rates that have a significant impact on the natural environment. Egypt is aware of these challenges and developed several policies and strategies towards a greener future. In line with the Paris agreement (2016) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2030),…

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Draft book cover for the Urban Food Mapping book. (source: Mikey Tomkins and Routledge 2023)

Coming soon: The Urban Food Mapping book

We are pleased to announce that the book Urban Food Mapping: Making visible the Edible City, edited by Katrin Bohn and Mikey Tomkins will publish soon. This month, Mikey and Katrin, supported by the editorial board and all contributors, reviewed the draft proofs, and they look great! Richly explored, using over 200 mapping images in…

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The focus of the green infrastructural project is an area characterised by multi-storey housing with generous open space provision. (source: Stadt Mühlhausen und Katrin Bohn 2023)

Students begin design work for a green Martini in Mühlhausen

The city of Mühlhausen’s Smart City project is now receiving support from Fachhochschule Erfurt [Erfurt University of Applied Sciences] to advance its plans for green infrastructure connections and a neighbourhood garden [Quartiersgarten] in its Martini suburb. Landscape architecture students, led by Prof. Inga Hahn and her team, are currently developing design proposals for the area….

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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…

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Participants in the AESOP4FOOD intensive programme enjoy a working lunch at the Stads Academie, Ghent. (source: Konrad Ruskowiak 2023)

Agroecological Urbanism – Future Heritage

Andre Viljoen was invited to participate in the AESOP4FOOD Intensive Programme Agroecological Urbanism – Future Heritage hosted between the 8th and 15th July by the Stads Academy Ghent, Belgium, a collaboratory for transdisciplinary research and education on complex and urgent sustainability issues of the City of Ghent and Ghent University. Funded by the EU’s Erasmus+…

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Image: This is the third webinar in the CRFS Knowledge Exchange Webinar Series. (source: FAO www 2023)

INVITE: Capacity-building for strengthening city region food systems

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems – with whom Bohn&Viljoen have collaborated in the past – and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) run their third event in the CRFS Knowledge Exchange Webinar Series: Capacity-building for strengthening city region…

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Image: Church Street CPUL Bridge Hotel by Wilson Ng (source: Wilson Ng 2023)

Productive urban landscape projects amongst the winners

Last Friday, the end of year show of the Architecture and Design courses at the University of Brighton closed with the student award ceremony followed by a big party. Amongst the winners of the much coveted, more than 15 different prizes was Wilson Ng, architecture student in Andre Viljoen’s MArch studio, who won the runner-up…

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INVITE: End of Year Show at the University of Brighton

Please come along and join the Architecture and Design courses at the University of Brighton at their annual End of Year Show. Included in the exhibition will be work from: BA(Hons) Architecture, MArch Architecture, BA(Hons) Interior Architecture, BSc(Hons) Product Design, MA Interior Design, MA Sustainable Design and the Architecture and Design Integrated Foundation. After it…

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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…

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In his chapter, André Viljoen describes how place-based mappings can support farmers and local authorities in urban development planning. (source: André Viljoen 2023)

Manuscript submitted for the Urban Food Mapping book

Today, Mikey Tomkins and Katrin Bohn submitted the manuscript for the book Urban Food Mapping: Making visible the Edible City. Please watch out for its publication later this year! This first publication to systematise urban food mapping identifies urban food mapping as a distinct activity and area of research that enables a more nuanced way…

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EFUA survey cumulates knowledge on urban agriculture

Within its four year process, the European Forum on Urban Agriculture (EFUA) has just launched a Delphi Survey aiming to propose policy frameworks for sustainable urban agriculture. This highly participatory group survey method is especially suitable for structuring uncertain knowledge and forecasting. The EFUA organisation team invited members of its Innovation Board to the survey,…

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Image: The Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA) has recently embarked on an ambitious productive urban landscape project on its own site. (source: IUA www 2022)

DCZ Forum provides Sino-German Exchange in agricultural sciences

On the 13th of December 2022 the 4th Exchange Forum on Sino-German Collaboration in Agricultural Sciences took place online. The Sino-German Agricultural Centre [Deutsch-Chinesisches Agrarzentrum] had invited several experts to discuss the potentials of collaboration projects between China’s Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA) and German research institutions. The Sino-German Agricultural Centre [Deutsch-Chinesisches Agrarzentrum], located in…

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In 1962, Cité Gagarine, a symbol of progress in workers' housing, was inaugurated. In 2020, an Agrocité co-constructed with the inhabitants is beginning to be set up. (source: Archikubik www, 2022)

Agrocité Gagarine includes a productive urban landscape

Last week, the newsletter of urbanNext reminded us of a productive city project that started on site in 2022 near Paris, France. In their newsletter, urbanNext write: ‘In the heart of Ivry-sur-Seine (Val de Marne), the Agrocity Gagarine Truillot urban project is a paradigmatic example of urban regeneration in an area identified as priority by…

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Title page of the Community Garden Program (source: Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection Berlin, 2022)

Berlin’s Community Garden Program goes live

On the 12th of September, Berlin’s first network evening “Berlin gärtnert [ Berlin is gardening]” took place at Prinzessinnengarten Hermannstraße. Many long-standing community gardening activists and new urban gardeners followed the invitation by the Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz [Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection] via its Plattform Produktives Stadtgrün, coordinated…

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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,…

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Lore of the Wild is an audio storywalk, co-created and written by Bernadette Russell and Sophie Austin. (source: Melanie Smith, walk-listen-create website, 2022)

INVITE: Sound Walk September 2022

Now entering its fifth year, walk · listen · create is very excited to remind us of the open call for soundwalks to be celebrated this autumn, during Sound Walk September. Crowdsourced from around the world, Sound Walk September each year celebrates all forms of soundwalks and sound walking events, culminating in the Sound Walk…

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The VR system, tested by Jasmine Cook, has quite a few new functions. (source: Andre Viljoen 2022)

Third Workshop for the Seeing Urban Food Futures Project

The third workshop for the Seeing Urban Food Futures project was held on July 28th. Attendees from the previous two workshops operated the newest iteration of the VR system developed by Alex Judd and Simon Boseley and the team from the School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering at the University of Brighton. Aim of the…

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