Production Landscapes; ‘Grow your own’

Production Landscapes; ‘Grow your own’

We have a myriad of environmental challenges facing us, especially in regards to food production, and its relationship to the city. If we start to see food as a language, and as a form of communication, could this be an initial step towards creating resilient cities. Our food systems are shaped by culture, climate, geography, our human interactions, life quality, and pleasure. Food is thus a measure of: Sustainability, Life quality, State of the ecosystem and Cultural identity.

On the 12th of April, FoAM Brussels and FoAM Nordica, together with students from Landscape architecture department at Alnarp, the Swedish university of agricultural sciences, joined for 5 hours to brainstorm, investigate and look at the different creative methodologies for strengthening our relationship with what we eat, and how we grow food in the cities. The aim of the workshop was:
1.To develop a food mandala inspired by permaculture plant guilds. A mapping of the seasons in order to communicate to a wider urban audience what one can grow and when.
2.To develop a serious of do-it-yourself (DIY) indoor farming prototypes.

Through hands-on suggestions and creative alternatives, we tried to explore the relationship to the way food arrives on our plates daily. Making the concept accessible, desirable, fun, educative, and worthwhile to plant where one lives. And begin to understand the discourse around what the main challenges are presently, and in the future, on how we feed our cities.

Workshop leaders: Anna Maria Orru,
Johan Zetterquist (FoAM Nordica) and
Lina Kusaite (FoAM, Brussels)

images:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157626377573941/

Related links:
http://libarynth.org/production_landscapes
www.landskapsarkitekturdagen.se/?p=28
www.annamariaorru.com
www.campusalnarp.se/