Productive Urban Landscapes

Research and practice around the CPUL design concept

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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The neighbourhood garden is part of a more-than-human vision of future cities. (source: Katrin Bohn 2023)

Mühlhausen guests visit community gardens in Berlin

It is always an experience to visit a community garden in Berlin, Germany. Last week, Katrin led a tour of  Spiel/Feld Marzahn and Prinzessinnengarten Moritzplatz for representatives of the city administration of Mühlhausen/Thür. The Thuringian town in the centre of Germany plans a community garden as part of their 5-year-long Smart City urban development project….

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The focus of the green infrastructural project is an area characterised by multi-storey housing with generous open space provision. (source: Stadt Mühlhausen und Katrin Bohn 2023)

Students begin design work for a green Martini in Mühlhausen

The city of Mühlhausen’s Smart City project is now receiving support from Fachhochschule Erfurt [Erfurt University of Applied Sciences] to advance its plans for green infrastructure connections and a neighbourhood garden [Quartiersgarten] in its Martini suburb. Landscape architecture students, led by Prof. Inga Hahn and her team, are currently developing design proposals for the area….

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Image: The Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA) has recently embarked on an ambitious productive urban landscape project on its own site. (source: IUA www 2022)

DCZ Forum provides Sino-German Exchange in agricultural sciences

On the 13th of December 2022 the 4th Exchange Forum on Sino-German Collaboration in Agricultural Sciences took place online. The Sino-German Agricultural Centre [Deutsch-Chinesisches Agrarzentrum] had invited several experts to discuss the potentials of collaboration projects between China’s Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA) and German research institutions. The Sino-German Agricultural Centre [Deutsch-Chinesisches Agrarzentrum], located in…

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A field can be viewed from a platform. (Source: Biennal Internacional de Paisatge Barcelona, 2022)

Belvedere Agricultural Park, Germany

The Belvedere Agricultural Park sits on the Western edge of Cologne. It completes the outer green belt of Cologne, which was initially conceived in 1917.  The Belvedere Agricultural Park received public fund in 2010 in order to be realised, after being a part of the Regionale 2010. The Belvedere Agricultural Park approached the design of…

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Stone walls of a castle are surrounded by rows of vegetables and a public pathway. (Source: Urban Green Blue Grids, 2022)

Edible city of Andernach, Germany

Andernach city has developed it’s public green spaces as vegetable and fruit patches for all to freely pick, contribute to and enjoy. The city’s intentions are multifunctional – they hope that by transforming public spaces into food producing public areas that they enhance the biodiversity, ecology, economy and attraction to the city as well as…

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(source: International Bauausstellungen www 2022)

Emscher Park, Germany

Beginning in 1989, the declining industrial Ruhr region of Germany underwent a transformation as part of the Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) Emscher Park. After the closure of most industrial plants and mines, there were many open spaces left and much wasteland. The IBA Emscher Park project was initiated by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with the aim to repair…

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Map of the Green C. (Source: Freude Joy Joie Bonn 2022)

Green C Project, Germany

The Grünes” C or Green C project, covers almost 4 hectares of area with the aim to protect, connect and enhance open spaces across the municipalities of Alfter, Bonn, Bornheim, Niederkassel, Sankt Augustin and Troisdorf. Beginning as a pilot project in 2005 the Green C project focuses on nature conservation, preservation & development of agriculture and…

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Aerial image of the vision of the Patrick Henry Village. (Source: IBA Heidelberg 2022)

Heidelberg’s PHVision, Germany

For its urban real-life laboratory ‘PHVision’ in Heidelberg, Germany’s most influential urban regeneration tool International Building Exhibition (IBA) creates a productive city landscape. A large international team set up a Dynamic Master Plan that was agreed on by the municipal council in 2020. The development process was also accompanied by citizen participation. The former US…

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