Welcome academic visitor Akane Bessho

We are warmly welcoming our academic visitor Akane Bessho, a second-year doctoral student at the Department of Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan. Akane is experienced in the theory and practice of urban agricultural design. She received her Bachelor’s degree (BFA) in Architectural Design from Maryland Institute College of Art (2016) with her architectural design thesis Therapeutic Landscape in Cherryhill, Baltimore and her Master’s degree in sustainability science from the Graduate Program in Sustainability Science Global Leadership Initiative, Graduate School of Frontier Science at the University of Tokyo (2018) with her thesis The roles of urban agriculture for fostering social inclusion of immigrants: case study of Black Creek Community Farm in Toronto, Canada.

André, Dong and Akane (image: Dong Chu 2019)

Akane’s research focuses on the social roles of community-based urban agriculture in fostering social inclusion of socially-excluded and vulnerable urban populations. During her stay at the University of Brighton, we will visit local community gardens, an aquaponics project and the local food initiatives nearby. We hope that Akane will have great information tours here and get all the material she needs for the community garden design in Tokyo. We are happy to work with her and learn from her about the commonalities and differences between urban agricultural design in the UK and Japan.

Image: Academic visitor Akane Bessho, University of Tokyo, and Prof. André Viljoen, University of Brighton (source: Dong Chu 2019)