* circular cities | Productive Urban Landscapes

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…

Katrin Bohn • 26th September 2022

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,…

Katrin Bohn • 12th September 2022

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…

Katrin Bohn • 31st March 2022

2km of hedgerows have been reintroduced to Woodoaks Farm, . (source: Soil Association, video still, 2022)

Hedge planting at the Soil Association’s Woodoaks Farm

‘It takes a community to run a farm’, says Rose Lewis, programme manager at Woodoaks Farm, in a video published today by the Soil Association. Rose is one of many local residents who, last November, helped planting hedges at a new Soil Association farm, Woodoaks Farm in Hertfordshire. The Woodoaks hedge planting campaign had raised…

Katrin Bohn • 11th February 2022

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…

Andre Viljoen • 15th November 2021

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…

Katrin Bohn • 5th November 2021

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…

Katrin Bohn • 1st November 2021

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)…

Katrin Bohn • 25th October 2021

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…

Katrin Bohn • 16th June 2021

Aerial of entire site with envisioned expansion by William McDonough & Partners (source: William McDonough & Partners 2022)

Agro Food Park, Denmark

On the outskirts of Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, Agro Food Park connects the urban to the agricultural bringing together agricultural organisations for collaboration and networking. Making up Agro Food Park are over 80 agricultural or food production companies and, as it stands, over 1200 employees. The park accommodates large, established companies as well as…

Jasmine Cook • 2nd December 2017

Almere Oosterwold’s masterplan (source: MVRDV 2022)

Almere Oosterwold, The Netherlands

Almere Oosterwold is an experimental town development situated 30km east of Amsterdam. It became a municipality in the 1980’s and has since grown into a 1000 house community. The principle is ‘You can do (almost) anything you want, but you have to organise it yourself.’ The design of Almere Oosterwold includes 59% of the land…

Jasmine Cook • 2nd December 2017

Drawing highlighting the permaculture system. (Source: The Food Forest Project, 2022)

The Food Forest Project, UK

This project in Somerset uses permaculture techniques to create productive plots of land. Aiming to benefit communities, they offer the opportunity to harvest free and organic fruits and vegetables, to engage themselves through a volunteering program which aims to improve mental health and to increase biodiversity and enhance the ecology of the areas they work…

Jasmine Cook • 1st October 2017

View of some of the crop rows at Fresh City Farm with an urban background of Toronto buildings. (Source: Carrot City, 2022)

Fresh City Farms, Downsview Park, Canada

Downsview Park is an urban park situated in northern Toronto. With the desire to investigate the viability of urban farming and understand community interest, the park launched a pilot project in 2011 which showed there was a keen interest for food sustainable programs to be integrated into the urban environment. In 2019 Fresh City Farms…

Jasmine Cook • 1st October 2017

Aerial photo showing expanse of the symbiotic landscape (source: Zhejiang China 2022)

The Mulberry Dike Fish Pond System, China

One of the food production systems we explored recently is the Mulberry Dike Fish Pond System. Being a productive agricultural landscape in its own right, Dong Chu suggested to revisit it as part of a potential Productive Urban Landscape. In 2017, the Mulberry Dike Fish Pond System in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, was identified by the…

Dong Chu • 2nd June 2017

The architects' vision of the park show the multiple functions productive urban landscapes can have. (source: VWA 2022)

Parc Agro-Urbain Bernex, Switzerland

In 2013, the state of Geneva opened an international competition with an open program brief. The competition asked for proposals that aimed to encourage interaction between the urban population and the agricultural industry, to offer a new ‘vision of the relationship between city and the farmed territory’ and to be a model of a response…

Jasmine Cook • 1st May 2017

Image of footpath through a space with garden beds either side. (Source: Jasmine Cook 2022)

Preston Park Demonstration Garden, UK

The Preston Park Demonstration Garden is run by the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership and maintained by a team of local volunteers. The garden is situated on the south-eastern edge of Preston Park, Brighton & Hove’s largest urban park. Brighton and Hove Food Partnership is a non-profit organisation which works with local businesses, other local…

Jasmine Cook • 1st May 2017

Image: Productive landscape when implemented on the existing space (source: Pia Kante, Katja Mali & Vid Bogovič www 2019)

Productive Dynamic Landscapes, Slovenia

Master’s in Landscape Architecture students Pia Kante, Katja Mali and Vid Bogovič from the University of Ljubljana have been developing a design proposal which they call Productive Dynamic Landscapes. Their concept addresses the issue of how to work with urban sprawl in ways that can overcome current reliance on a culture determined by car use and…

Jasmine Cook • 1st May 2017

Map of the South-East London Green Chain (Source: Gov.Co.Uk, 2022)

The South-East London Green Chain, UK

The South-East London Green Chain was created in 1977 by the Greater London Council and four London boroughs – Bexley, Bromley, Lewisham and Royal Greenwich in order to protect the green areas from inappropriate building. Today it includes a fifth borough – Southwick – and links over 300 open spaces. The spaces are a combination…

Jasmine Cook • 2nd March 2017