Productive Urban Landscapes

Research and practice around the CPUL design concept

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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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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Jasmine Cook's urban farm proposal grows cauliflower on a tiered step structure. (source: Jasmine Cook 2022)

First year architecture students show food-productive designs

This coming Friday, our Architecture & Design Summer Show starts at the School of Architecture and Design, Mithras House, University of Brighton. It will be open to the public on 18-19 June, from 11am – 5pm. The show will include work from first year architecture students who have just completed their design module Design, technology…

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Dr Mikey Tomkins' map drawings for Brighton CPUL waiting to be folded (source: Andre Viljoen 2022)

The first CPUL edible map walk through Brighton

Last week, about 20 invited guests took part in the first edible map walk through Brighton following an imaginary CPUL (Continuous Productive Urban Landscape) route. Guided by Dr Mikey Tomkins, participants explored a potential urban edible landscape – a CPUL – made up of inner-urban sites in this UK seaside city. In preparation of the…

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Co-Living in the Countryside by Charles Holland Architects with Quality of Life Foundation, Verity-Jane Keefe, Joseph Zeal-Henry (source: The Davidson Prize / Charles Holland Architects 2022)

A Productive Landscape features in architectural competition shortlist

Congratulations! Our colleague at the University of Brighton, Prof Charles Holland, heads a team that has just been shortlisted for this year’s Davidson Prize which aims to reward transformative architecture of the home. Charles Holland Architects’ proposal, created in conjunction with the Quality of Life Foundation, Verity-Jane Keefe, and Joseph Zeal-Henry, is titled Co-Living in…

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RSD11 calls for papers that challenge, extend, critique, and diversify established working methods in systemic design. (source: RSD www 2022)

Call for Papers: Possibilities and Practices of Systemic Design

We are proud to announce that RSD11, the 11th Relating Systems Thinking and Design  symposium by the Systemic Design Association, will happen at the University of Brighton in October 2022. The international hybrid event will be hosted by a team of colleagues from our School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering, led by Dr Ben Sweeting…

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A food future visualisation in the centre of Brighton is planned as both, a physical walk and a virtual event. (source: Andre Viljoen 2022)

Seeing urban food futures: Funding success

We are pleased to let you know that, today, we heard of our success in bidding to Research England’s Participatory Research call. Our cross-disciplinary, community-university project Seeing urban food futures: Co-researching virtual reality as a scenario building tool will launch this month! The project involves staff from two University-of-Brighton schools – School of Architecture Technology…

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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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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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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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Land use of council-owned land in Brighton & Hovee. The dark green areas are farms. (source: Brighton & Hove City Council www 2021)

The Brighton & Hove City Downland Estate Plan

Last Friday, André Viljoen and Katrin Bohn took part in an online meeting with officers of Brighton & Hove City Council to discuss a collaboration on the City’s Circular Economy Programme. The meeting’s host, Nicholas Fishlock, Project Manager at the City’s Regeneration Team, explained that the Circular Economy Programme is currently being developed and will…

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Nearly 200 colleagues were nominated for this year's One Staff Brighton Awards. (source: University of Brighton 2021)

Congratulations! Andre and Katrin nominated for University of Brighton award!

We are pleased to announce that Andre Viljoen and Katrin Bohn have been nominated in the University of Brighton’s One Staff Awards for a Research & Enterprise Award in the Outstanding Research & Enterprise Impact category. Last week, in a university-wide online awards event, nearly 200 nominees were celebrated. The University of Brighton’s One Staff…

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In her project Sea-Meat Seeweed, artist Hanan Alkouh produced meat from seaweed. The project was shown at Food Revolution 5.0 where Bohn&Viljoen exhibited The Edible Terrace. (source: Tom Mannion www 2016)

Should we stop producing meat?

Last Thursday, Katrin Bohn joined Prof. Lisa Jack from the University of Portsmouth in an expert panel discussion chaired by Dr. Neale Davies, Liverpool John Moores University, as part of the one-day (online) event The Future of Food hosted by Clean Growth UK. The panel of experts examined with the audience whether we should stop…

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Madeira Terrace's location between the sea and the city (source: Max Martin 2019)

Design a place for food growing, preparing and eating on Madeira Terrace, Brighton!

This academic year, Katrin and André are involved in the studio teaching of Year 1 architecture students at the University of Brighton, André as a design tutor and Katrin – starting last week – as a visiting lecturer and critic. For their main design project, students are being asked to design both, ‘a new space…

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The event will be held online on Thursday 25th February. (source: Clean Growth UK 2021)

INVITE: Join Katrin to discuss the future of food

On Thursday, 25th February, from 10 am to 12.30 am, Katrin Bohn will be discussing the future of food with entrepreneurs and academics. Please do join in! Industry leaders will come together to share their insights on the future of food (production) in this online event hosted by Clean Growth UK, a network led by…

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Grassroots climate activism across UK universities (source: Ben Holland (2021) Grassroots activism will give power to climate action, in: RIBA Journal, 8th January 2021)

Your education is failing you!

The RIBA Journal‘s January edition features ‘a rallying cry’ by Ben Holland ‘to unite with the activism of students and young professionals across the UK and really act on the climate emergency’ . Starting with the tagline of the Climate Curriculum Campaign – Calling all architecture students, graduates, professionals. Your education is failing you! -,…

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Brighton & Hove's bid was submitted after a 5-year process involving multiple local stakeholders. (source: BHFP www 2020)

Gold Award success for Brighton & Hove

Congratulations! On 30th November 2020, national awards body Sustainable Food Places announced that Brighton & Hove has become the first in the UK to win a Gold Sustainable Food Place Award. ‘The award recognises the city’s outstanding achievements on a range of key food issues and most recently on tackling food poverty during the Covid-19…

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A small-scale circularity exists with this 'shop of trust' in the area of future Landwirtschaftspark Heidelberg. (source: Katrin Bohn 2016)

The Circular City: Rethinking architecture and engineering

Katrin Bohn presented her work and thoughts on the Circular City concept on invitation by the University of Brighton. The presentation and conversation with co-presenter Dr. Yan Wang happened on Wednesday 4th November as part of the open conversation series Unlikely Partners curated and organised by the university. Initially intended for a local audience, the…

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