Urban Transformations

We are members of a current AHRC international network titled: Urban Transformations Pathways from practice to policy (http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/utppp). Our multidisciplinary group includes practitioners and academics from the fields of design (urban, architectural and landscape), the arts, social sciences, policy and planning. We are an open learning and research community focusing on, “productive urban landscapes” a relatively newly defined and emerging landscape typology with strong ecological, biodiversity, health and wellbeing characteristics. A particular feature of productive landscapes is the inclusion of food producing urban agriculture sites, with community and/or commercial aims. We are interested in the way that productive landscapes can be designed and included in policy with the aim of improving urban qualities and resilience. Researching qualitative and quantifiable impacts and consequences is central to our work. The network includes live projects run by participants in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and France. These could provide case study sites for research and secondment opportunities for researchers provided that funding was available.