By 2050 the world population is expected to have grown to 9 billion people, with an estimated 7 billion living in cities. Although food is one of the basic needs of life, it seems to be a topic that is largely neglected in urban and regional planning and design.

This Capita Selecta series aims to critically reflect on current and future modes of urban food provisioning, examine different future urban food systems and explore the (potential) role of urban food governance, planning and design. The series is organised and moderated by Han Wiskerke (Lecturer Foodscapes at the Academy), who will also hold the first lecture.

31 October 2013 – Han Wiskerke
FUTURE FOODSCAPES
Towards smart metropolitan foodscapes 

During the last decades rapid urban growth has gone hand in hand with the rise of globalized and industrialized systems of urban food provisioning. The future of this food system is increasingly under pressure due to issues of climate change, resource depletion, waste, traffic congestion and diet-related ill-health. Based on current research in metropolitan regions in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, Han Wiskerke will discuss the current dynamics and challenges of urban food provisioning and present examples of new modes of metropolitan food provisioning capable of addressing (some of) the future food challenges. In this he will also reflect on the implications and potentials for spatial (re)design.

Han Wiskerke is Lecturer Foodscapes at the Academy of Architecture (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).
 
7 November 2013 - Marketa Braine-Supkova
FOOD-SENSITIVE PLANNING
Incorporating food in urban and regional policy and planning

The International Urban Food Network (IUFN) was launched to bring together researchers and local authorities, in developed and emerging economies, in pursuit of sustainable urban and regional food systems. According to IUFN sustainable food systems are key to the construction of resilient territories and hence campaigns for the integration of food in urban and territorial planning and governance. This implies that municipal and regional authorities have a major role to play. Do they dare to take up the challenge and do they know how, as food has been a stranger to the field of urban policy and planning for many decades?

Markéta Braine-Supkova is co-founder and President of the International Urban Food Network (Paris, France).

14 November 2013 - Gertjan Meeuws
PLANT PARADISE
The next generation of horticulture 

Plantlab has developed a radically new way of plant growing: indoor, in vertical layers, using LED lights, climate control and mathematical models. Plantlab develops production environments completely based on the needs of plants, hence plant paradise. This system can be fully integrated in the urban fabric at different levels of scale – from the level of the kitchen to the level of agro-industrial parks – and is, according to Plantlab, a system that has a very high resource use efficiency regarding energy, water and nutrients. Is this the future of urban food provisioning?

Gertjan Meeuws is co-founder and CEO of Plantlab (‘s Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands).
 
21 November 2013 - Andre Viljoen
CULTIVATING THE CITY
Creating continuous productive landscapes for sustainable cities 

Does the old concept that cities are places for dwelling and countrysides places for food production still hold true today? Viljoen argues not and claims that we should view our cities not only sites where food is consumed but also produced. It is only in the last 30 or so years that we have perfected the art of creating totally useless landscapes. New industrial estates and business parks typify this, planted with ‘low maintenance’ shrubs, specifically bred to be entirely unproductive Hence he advocates the creation of networks of productive green spaces throughout the city. These C ontinuous Productive Urban Landscapes (CPULs) constitute an essential element of sustainable urban infrastructure. In this lecture Andre Viljoen will present his CPULs approach and explain how space for urban agriculture can and should be included in urban design.

Andre Viljoen is lecturer and programme leader of the architecture programmes at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Brighton (United Kingdom).

28 November 2013 - Daniel Mbisso
MEANING OF MARKETS
Food markets in sub-Sahara Africa’s metropolises: the case of Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam is the largest city of Tanzania and in the top 10 of the fastest growing cities in the world. Getting food into and through a city that is experiencing problems with traffic congestion, air pollution, waste disposal and collection and growing food insecurity is a major challenge. Marketplaces are important sites for food distribution and for access to affordable food for the low-income urban population.
However, knowledge about the spatial processes that generate and sustain food trading in marketplaces is limited and concomitantly adequate spatial design and planning of food markets is underdeveloped or lacking. Daniel Mbisso studies and analyzes the processes pertaining to the generation, use and management of these trading places and explores the role of architects and planners in guiding the provision of adequate environments for food trading, specifically targeted at meeting the needs of the low-income urban population.

Daniel Mbisso is lecturer at the Department of Architecture of Ardhi University (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania).