Productive Urban Landscapes

Research and practice around the CPUL design concept

The hardcover version of the Urban Food Mapping book (source: Mikey Tomkins, 2024)

INVITE: The Urban Food Mapping online book launch

Our new book is out! To celebrate, we would like to invite you to the public online LAUNCH of this collaborative book project! And to catch all our contributors from around the globe, there will be 2 online launches: Thursday 21st of March 8am-9am UK time (= 9:00-10:00 CET) at this link (https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MjVkM2RmMzUtYjgyZS00ZTAzLThkYTItOWUwOWVhOGMzNTRh%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22a900bb90-94fe-4658-8b34-dd72084c5064%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22fc4e2f0c-5dec-4e57-8086-2fa74fd2f738%22%7d) and Friday…

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The CPUL Opportunity Mapping Method explained (source: Bohn&Viljoen Architects [2012] with Ian Bailey, University of Brighton, 2021)

Coming soon: A book chapter on urban design for food

One of the contributions to Katrin Bohn’s and Mikey Tomkins’ edited volume Urban Food Mapping: Making visible the Edible City will be Katrin’s chapter on food opportunity mapping. Fully titled Food in urban design and planning: The CPUL Opportunity Mapping Method, the chapter starts of from the observation that sustainable urban food planning is still…

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Draft book cover for the Urban Food Mapping book. (source: Mikey Tomkins and Routledge 2023)

Coming soon: The Urban Food Mapping book

We are pleased to announce that the book Urban Food Mapping: Making visible the Edible City, edited by Katrin Bohn and Mikey Tomkins will publish soon. This month, Mikey and Katrin, supported by the editorial board and all contributors, reviewed the draft proofs, and they look great! Richly explored, using over 200 mapping images in…

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Image: This food map was created for and with the Municipality as part of a participatory process aimed at making Carthage an 'edible city'. (source: Katrin Bohn with Ian Bailey, University of Brighton, and City Team Carthage 2021)

City Team Carthage finalises food advocacy note

Since Spring 2021, Katrin Bohn and her small University of Brighton team, have been advising the City of Carthage, Tunisia, in their efforts to establish sustainable urban planning strategies with a food system focus. On 5th April 2023, the City approved one of two important documents aimed at supporting this process: an advocacy note laying…

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In his chapter, André Viljoen describes how place-based mappings can support farmers and local authorities in urban development planning. (source: André Viljoen 2023)

Manuscript submitted for the Urban Food Mapping book

Today, Mikey Tomkins and Katrin Bohn submitted the manuscript for the book Urban Food Mapping: Making visible the Edible City. Please watch out for its publication later this year! This first publication to systematise urban food mapping identifies urban food mapping as a distinct activity and area of research that enables a more nuanced way…

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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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The key elements of the Opportunity Mapping Process which is rooted in a specific local context and task and will result in a strategy for implementing productive urban landscapes. (source: Bohn&Viljoen 2012)

Spatial and participatory food (systems) mapping at AESOP4FOOD

Last week, Katrin gave a lecture to an international audience at the online sustainable food planning course AESOP4FOOD. AESOP4FOOD (Action for Education, Spatial Organization and Planning for Sustainable Food) is an Erasmus+ project aiming to develop future leadership in sustainable food planning and thereby to contribute to food security, food justice and healthier environments. The lecture…

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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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A Food for Cities discussion started on developing short food supply chains for Ukraine. (politpost-www 2022)

Help needed: Developing short food supply chains in Ukraine

As the sad war in Ukraine enters its sad 7th week, food activists in- and outside of the country try to establish a somewhat secure food supply for the many harassed cities and communities. One such collective effort has come to our attention only yesterday when a researcher at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, posted a…

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Final draft of the opportunity mapping diagram An Edible City strategy for Carthage (source: University of Brighton 2022)

Mapping food opportunities for Carthage, Tunisia

Today saw the completion of an important stage in our food-focused masterplanning for the City of Carthage, Tunisia. In a virtual meeting organised by the Institute of Organic Farming at BOKU University Vienna, Katrin Bohn and Ian Bailey (University of Brighton) handed over to the Carthage City Team the results of an 8-months-long participatory design…

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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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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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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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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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Register card for locally-grown produce as part of the urban regeneration project Urbane Agrikultur in Köln-Ehrenfeld (source: Bohn&Viljoen and DQE 2011)

INVITE: Mapping the Edible City: Call for expressions of interest to contribute to book

It is our great pleasure to invite you to submit your expression of interest to our forthcoming book project Mapping the Edible City. Together with colleagues from Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Norway and the USA, Katrin and Andre are members of the book’s editorial group. Please find below our call for expressions of interest that…

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A dessert produced in a Made in Hackney Vegan Baking Masterclass (source: The Jellied Eel www 2020)

H A P P Y _ N E W _ Y E A R _ 2 0 2 1 !

What a year has just passed! One of the few really positive aspects of it may be the time for reflection that it allowed, at least for us, here at the Productive Urban Landscapes blog. For the new year, we wish our readers benefits from some of your reflections, and we wish you health and…

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Cover slide of the presentation A short overview of food mapping (source: Bohn and Edwards 2020)

Presentation of the first paper to study urban food mapping?

During the recent international conference Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future, Katrin Bohn and Ferne Edwards presented their paper A short overview of food mapping: Developing a cross-disciplinary approach to an expert audience. Its main question will be taken foward during a workshop meeting tomorrow, Wednesday 30th September, with contributors interested in follow-up…

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A group discussions on finding space for urban agriculture (source: Bohn&Viljoen www 2020)

“Mapping the Edible City” showcases the diversity of urban food mapping.

Our conference panel Mapping the Edible City: Making visible communities and food spaces in the city was held successfully at last week’s Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future (online) conference. Co-convenors Ferne Edwards, Katrin Bohn and Andre Viljoen welcomed a perfectly diverse range of contributions to the virtual stage, all reflecting on aims,…

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A map of Atlanta recording places of food retail (yellow and orange dots) and social demographics (red-lined areas) (source: Jerry Shannon www 2020)

INVITE: Join us for our panel “Mapping the Edible City” in 2 weeks!

Our conference panel Mapping the Edible City: Making visible communities and food spaces in the city will take place on Wednesday 16th September and Thursday 17th September 2020. Co-convened by Ferne Edwards (RMIT) and Katrin Bohn (UoB) with Andre Viljoen (UoB) and Kevin Morgan (Cardiff University), the panel is part of the Anthropology and Geography:…

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The schoolgarden, a distinct part of Spiel/Feld, in April, with its new sun shading in place (source: Spiel/Feld www 2020)

Wild Pollinators Project starts at Spiel/Feld Marzahn.

Planned since several months, the Wild Pollinator Project (full title Bienen, Bestäubung und Bürgerwissenschaft in Berlins Gärten'[Bees, pollination and crowd science in the gardens of Berlin]) has just started in the neighbourhood garden Spiel/Feld to the Northeast of Berlin that Katrin had co-initiated in 2011. The project is a collaboration of Spiel/Feld with the National…

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