Productive Urban Landscapes

Research and practice around the CPUL design concept

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,…

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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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A complex network of interdependencies between societal challenges (top), urban spaces (middle) and food system activities (bottom) has been identified during the food and opportunity mapping process. (source: REACT 2022)

How to become an edible city: Carthage, Tunisia

On Wednesday 27th April, Katrin Bohn was invited by the Mayor of Carthage to the first meeting of a new investigation as part of the Tunisian city’s efforts to become an “edible city”. Within the ‘transition process of the City of Carthage towards a resilient and sustainable urban system’, the Municipality of Carthage, represented by…

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Cover of the Special Issue Planning food system transitions (source: UARFS 2022)

Special Issue “Planning food system transitions” out now !

We are happy to inform you that our Special Issue Planning food system transitions is now finalized and published in Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems (Wiley). Here you find the link to the full special issue (open access): https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)2575-1220.Planning-Food-System-Transitions This Special Issue has grown out of selected contributions to the 9th International AESOP Sustainable…

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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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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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Aerial of an urban agriculture project in Oslo (EFUA conference program 2022)

INVITE: Unlocking the potential of Urban Agriculture

On 29th March starts the two-day online FACTS Conference organised by the European Forum on Urban Agriculture (EFUA). The conference will collect, conceptualize and highlight local and global experiences of Urban Agriculture, starting from the perspective of Rome, thanks to a collaboration with the FAO. It aims to open the door to further networks and…

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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…

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The 9th AESOP Sustainable Food Planning Group conference in Madrid formulated key aspects of the food system. (source: AESOP4FOOD www 2022)

AESOP4FOOD online course to start soon

Registration will open soon for this year’s online course on sustainable food planning. The course is part of the Erasmus+ project AESOP4FOOD (Action for Education, Spatial Organization and Planning for Sustainable Food) which aims to address sustainable food planning through a transdisciplinary and participatory approach. Starting from the evidence of serious gaps in knowledge and transformative…

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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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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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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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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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The South East London Green Chain is being discussed in the paper by Katrin Bohn and Dong Chu. (source: Greenchain.com www 2019)

Special Issue on sustainable food planning released

Planning food system transitions is the title of an open access Special Issue in the journal Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems that has been released in April 2021. The Special Issue features selected papers presented at the 9th international  conference of the Sustainable Food Planning Group at AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning)….

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A short introduction video explains what circularity means and what the contest is looking for. (source: COST Action Circular City www 2021)

INVITE: Notice circularity in your city! Enter the photo contest!

COST Action Circular City has launched the #mycircularcity photo contest. We invite you to submit your photos until the 30th of June 2021. Under the heading of ‘Look around you, notice circularity in your city, capture it, your lens – your view, and upload it with a few clicks!’, we are seeking the 3 best…

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Bohn&Viljoen developed a matrix to compare existing urban agriculture repositories some of which already contain tools. (source: André Viljoen 2020)

Finding the right tools for implementing urban agriculture

Yesterday, André Viljoen and Katrin Bohn met with an interdisciplinary group of agronomists, scientists and urban designers that is developing an online Toolbox ‘to promote knowledge sharing, networking and learning among people involved or willing to get involved with food-related initiatives’ as part of the EU-funded EdiCitNet project. The group, led by the Catalan Institute…

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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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