Katrin Bohn convenes researchers-experts-audience colloquium on urban food

Under the seducing name “Tasty Cities”, the Fachgebiet Landschaftsarchitektur. Freiraumplanung [Department Landscape Architecture . Open Space Planning] led by Prof. Undine Giseke held a day of presentations and discussions on urban food systems at the Technical University in Berlin. Starting off from a Global-South perspective, aim of the colloquium was to converge knowledge gained in the two fast growing cities Kigali (Rwanda) and Da Nang (Vietnam) with experiences from Berlin.

Members of the department’s team presented the outcomes of their project Rapid Planning: Sustainable infrastructure, environment and ressource management for highly dynamic metropolitan regions [Rapid Planning: Nachhaltiges Infrastruktur- Umwelt- und Ressourcenmanagement für hochdynamische Metropolregionen], and invited food system practitioners and experts presented key food system projects from Berlin: the Ernährungsrat Berlin [Food Policy Council Berlin], the community garden Himmelbeet and the food distribution charity Berliner Tafel e.V. In lively discussion with the audience and convened by Katrin Bohn, lessons from Berlin, Da Nang and Kigali were extracted, compared and made part of a multi-directional knowledge transfer.

Since her guest professorship at TU Berlin, Katrin has worked repeatedly with Prof. Giseke and the researchers at her department. The research project Rapid Planning exlored during the last five years how food and other ressource systems can be proctively integrated into urban development in order to optimise ressource streams and connect them synergetically.

For more information on the Rapid Planning project see here.

For information on the Department Landscape Architecture . Open Space Planning see here.

Image: Aerial drawing showing the extend of urban sprawl in Kigali, Rwanda (source: Rapid Planning project www 2019)