Productive Urban Landscapes

Research and practice around the CPUL design concept

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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Discussing Akito Murayama’s research on spatial planning and design for Tokyo’s Agri-Residential Mixed Neighborhoods (source: Andre Viljoen 2020)

International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE) symposium

As part of the North American IALE Association’s annual conference, Andre Viljoen joined Prof Makoto Yokohari from the University of Tokyo and colleagues from Canada, USA and Japan to convene a special symposium on Borderless Landscapes: Envisioning resilient urban/rural mixed landscapes with agri-activities/lands. The conference was scheduled to run from the 11th to 14th May…

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Proposal for an “urban agriculture path” and public gathering space passing through part of Mr Shiraishi’s farm in Nerima City, Tokyo. (source: Andre Viljoen 2019)

A CPUL design for Tokyo

Early December 2019, Andre Viljoen returned from his second visit to Tokyo at the invitation of Nerima City’s Mayor.  As part of this trip, he was invited to develop a CPUL proposal for an urban farm belonging to Mr Shiraishi, who, with his family, is one of several farmers cultivating land in Nerima for many…

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International delegates and Nerima City officials drafting the declaration. (source: André Viljoen 2019)

Publication of the Urban Agriculture World Summit Declaration 2019

André Viljoen was one of the international guests invited to attend the 2019 World Urban Agriculture Summit hosted by the Mayor of Nerima City in Tokyo. Building on the earlier pre-summit in November 2018 and following an intensive exchange of ideas on best practices and visits to some of Nerima’s extensive urban agriculture sites, the…

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Academic visitor Akane Bessho, University of Tokyo, and Prof. André Viljoen, University of Brighton (source: Dong Chu 2019)

Welcome academic visitor Akane Bessho

We are warmly welcoming our academic visitor Akane Bessho, a second-year doctoral student at the Department of Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan. Akane is experienced in the theory and practice of urban agricultural design. She received her Bachelor’s degree (BFA) in Architectural Design from Maryland Institute College of Art (2016) with her architectural design…

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One of many urban agriculture vending machines found in Nerima City, used by urban farmers for selling produce to local residents. They indicate how within Tokyo, culture and infrastructure are well positioned to accommodate an expansion of the local distribution networks required to enable extensive areas of productive landscape. (source: Bohn&Viljoen 2018)

Productive green zones in Tokyo, Japan

Last week, André Viljoen returned from his first working visit to Japan where he acts as a consultant to Nerima City on invitation by the City’s Mayor. André writes: ‘Tokyo was a revelation. During the 8-days of field work, most of my time was spent visiting an impressive and largely unknown, in the Anglo Saxon…

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