The Architecture of Sustainable University Foodscape. Design Strategies and Practices for Reshaping the Food-City Nexus

In recent decades food projects, practices and policies enacted by universities have multiplied, crossing the spheres of teaching, research and the third mission. However, the perspective of urban and architectural design still seems to be underestimated in this interdisciplinary and intersectoral endeavour. On the one hand, design disciplines may contribute to socio-spatial analysis, making food systems’ spatial effects visible. On the other hand, design may explore scenarios, triggering or facilitating alternative food processes and practices. Thus, this contribution investigates the spatiality of food across universities, focusing on how a food system may be reshaped by sustainable design research and practice. Framing the observation between the terms ‘foodspace’ and ‘foodscape’, interweaving the material and sociocultural dimensions of food spatiality in universities, the contribution detects manifold case studies to understand how design strategies and practices may deal with the city-food nexus across contexts, scales and actors. Rethinking the architecture of their foodscapes, universities could embrace a critical role in the struggle for the right to food and the right to the city, thereby eliciting the societal transition towards a prospective sustainable future.