Productive Urban Landscapes

Research and practice around the CPUL design concept

Haworth Tompkins Green Away Day on 12th November 2021 held at Cecil Sharp House, London (source: Diana Dina 2021)

CPULs at Haworth Tompkins Green Away Day

Last week, Andre Viljoen was invited to present the CPUL concept at Haworth Tompkins Architects’ Green Away Day. This event provided the practice with their first post-lockdown occasion to meet in person and continue discussions about how to address the challenges of the climate crisis. Haworth Tompkins are one of the original UK practices to…

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Katrin Bohn's chapter uses a Berlin food network project to illustrate thoughts on a meso perspective in urban design and planning. (source: Katrin Bohn 2021)

Thoughts on the importance of a meso perspective

We are pleased to announce the publication of a book chapter by Katrin in the book Urban Open Space +, edited by Carolin Mees and published by Jovis in October 2021. Subtitled Strategies in between architecture and open space planning, the bi-lingual publication (English/German) explores ‘commonly used and designed open spaces [as] anchor points in…

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COP26 highlights that the urgency of climate action is being felt by all stakeholder groups of our society. (source: Sustain / NiklasPntk, Pixabay www 2021)

Sustain calls for food on the menu at COP26

The Jellied Eel, a project of London Food Link and Sustain, made us aware of an open letter to the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for action to reduce the climate impacts of food and farming. Coordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, 50 health, environment and farming organisations have written…

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Stand by me is an invitation to do something really simple that may appear really difficult: to stand next to a tree. (source: Whitehead and Lee 2021)

INVITE: COP26 stand by me

Today, COP 26, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, has opened in Glasgow. It brings parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP26 recognises and highlights that climate change is the greatest threat facing the world. In our Centre…

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In proGIreg, Dortmund (Germany) is one of four cities to host living labs in post-industrial districts where nature-based solutions are developed, tested and implemented. (source Sabina Leopa / proGIreg 2021)

New online course on nature-based urban regeneration

Our colleague Axel Timpe from RWTH University in Aachen, Germany, alerted us to a new 5-week course his institute has been developing as part of the EU-funded project Productive Green Infrastructure for post-industrial urban regeneration (proGIreg). The course starts on the 1st of November on edX, one of the foremost massive open online course (MOOC)…

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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…

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Cover extract of one of the new titles in the Urban Agriculture Book Series (source: Springer www 2021)

Two new books in the Springer Urban Agriculture series

Seven years have passed since the first publication of the Springer Urban Agriculture Book Series in October 2014. We celebrate this with two new books: Teaching and Learning in Urban Agricultural Community Contexts and Research Approaches in Urban Agriculture and Community Contexts. The books are companion volumes, edited by the same team, and both of…

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Green space per inhabitant in Sant Feliu de Llobregat ranging from no (brown) via little to more (light to dark green) to a lot of green space (blue) (source: Adjuntament de Sant Feliu de Llobregat www 2021)

Mapping food opportunities in Sant Feliu de Llobregat

In September, Katrin Bohn and her team at the University of Brighton started their design research and consultancy with Spanish city Sant Feliu de Llobregat, located within the Barcelona metropolitan area [àrea metropolitana de Barcelona]. Aim of the work is to support the local council in its efforts to integrate food systems activities and productive…

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Ten-step recommendation for urban designers, planners, and local decision makers supporting development of green infrastructure with an agroecological focus (source: Katrin Bohn 2019)

Bohn and Chu publish article on food-productive green infrastructure

We are pleased to announce that, two weeks ago, the open-access article Food-productive green infrastructure: Enabling agroecological transitions from an urban design perspective by Dr. Dong Chu and Katrin Bohn was published in the Wiley journal Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems, edited by Prof. Sarah Lovell. The peer-reviewed article is part of the journal’s…

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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…

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The Vier- und Marschlande, located in the south-east of the City of Hamburg, are a 14,000ha agricultural and horticultural area. (source: HafenCity University 2021)

New prospects for a cultivated landscape in Hamburg

Last week, Katrin Bohn was invited as a guest critic to the presentation of design projects by Masters’ students of the Architecture and Landscape program at HafenCity University Hamburg in Germany. The urban planning and architecture students, under the guidance of Prof. Antje Stokman and Anne Kittel, were tasked to think about strategies for the…

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Student’s proposal for an urban farm and banqueting hall integrated into the U4 Centre in Vienna. The drawing shows from which redundant buildings materials have been sourced for use in this proposal. (source: Natalia Hryszko 2021)

Farming and banqueting in useless buildings: Part Two

As the summer School of Re-construction comes to an end, the participating students walk us through their design for the reconstruction of Vienna’s U4 office building to incorporate an urban farm and banqueting hall. ‘Even though we started our journey with a different building each, we chose to work collectively on the U4 centre in…

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The development of the Gemeinschaftsgarten-Programm is led by Undine Giseke and Lisa Reis (bgmr landschaftsarchitekten) and Carolin Mees (mees architecture). (source: bgmr 2021)

Interim presentation of Berlin’s Community Garden Program

Last Thursday, Berlin’s Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection [Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz] invited to the interim presentation of its Gemeinschaftsgarten-Programm [Community Garden Program]. The Community Garden Program is the next step in consolidating a future for Berlin’s more than 200 community gardens and closely linked to the Plattform Produktives…

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Ingredients catalogue sample documenting resources within an office building (source: Ugne Neveckaite 2021)

Farming and banqueting in useless buildings

All of last week, Andre has been co-leading a design studio in the UoB Summer School of Re-construction, part of the EU-funded Interreg program Facilitating the circulation of reclaimed building elements in North-Western Europe. Working with students from Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and Morocco and the multi-disciplinary artist Inês Neto dos Santos, we are looking at…

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Cover of the new book Food Urbanism by Craig Verzone (source: Birkhäuser www 2021)

From CPUL to Food Urbanism

The beginning of July saw the publication of Food Urbanism, a book edited by Craig Verzone and published by Birkhäuser. Subtitled Typologies, Strategies, Case Studies, the book ‘introduces typologies, tools, evaluation methods and strategies [of urban food production] and shows the practical applications of the methods’. Multiple projects illustrate solutions that augment quality of nutrition…

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The plenary decided on the development of the food policy council's structure based on sociocratic principles. (source: Ernährungsrat Berlin www 2021)

Food Policy Council Berlin plenary elects new board and structure

On the 1st of July 2021, the plenary assembly of Berlin’s Food Policy Council [Ernährungsrat Berlin] took place online. Almost 70 people discussed and decided on two main issues, the election of a new board of speakers and the development of the Council’s organisational structure. On its website, the initiative informs about a successful election:…

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Chicago’s Urban Agricultural Networks: Mapping the future of thriving metropolitan foodsheds (source: Gundula Proksch conference presentation 2020)

Editorial board selects proposals for Mapping the Edible City book

During the last weeks, our eight-people-strong editorial board had the near-impossible task to select more than 20 thematically, geographically and disciplinarily balanced contributions for our forthcoming book Mapping the Edible City (working title). Our call earlier this Spring attracted more than 50 high-quality submissions from all over the world mainly focusing on either a specific…

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Plant Cycle (source: UoB architecture student Lisa Daniel 2017)

INVITE: Launch of the Design of Circular Cities & Regions Research Group

We are pleased to invite you to the public launch (online) of our new Design of Circular Cities & Regions Research and Enterprise Group (REG) at the University of Brighton. The launch happens on Thursday 24th June starting at 10am UK time (11am CET). For the following 4 hours, we have planned an event full…

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Valley Gardens in Brighton (site plan to the left) is one of four urban commons explored in this research project. (source: Alessandro Zambelli 2019)

Creative mapping project seeks participants

In-Common Sites is a participatory creative research project that explores the social, cultural, ecological and future value of four urban commons: The Downs, Bristol; Mousehold Heath, Norwich; Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne and Valley Gardens, Brighton. Yesterday, its artist-researchers have sent out this call: ‘The project needs help to chart on the ground experiences of…

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Sandy Lane Farm in Oxfordshire is one of the farms considered in the report. (source: Nina Osswald Veg Cities www 2021)

Improving access to land for food production in Oxfordshire, GB

Mark Stein, author of the very active twitter feed @MarkSteinLancs, made us aware of a recently published research report on the ‘huge potential to convert land to horticulture’ in the County of Oxfordshire. The research by local network Good Food Oxford focuses on ‘how land might be made more accessible to promote a diverse, resilient,…

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