Carolyn Steel

From our foraging hunter-gatherer ancestors to the enormous appetites of modern cities, food has shaped our bodies and homes, our politics and trade, and our climate. Whether it's the daily decision of what to eat, or the monopoly of industrial food production, food touches every part of our world. But by forgetting its value, we have drifted into a way of life that threatens our planet and ourselves. Yet food remains central to addressing the predicaments and opportunities of our urban, digital age. Drawing on insights from philosophy, history, architecture, literature, politics and science, as well as stories of the farmers, designers and economists who are remaking our relationship with food, Sitopia is a provocative and exhilarating vision for change, and how to thrive on our crowded, overheating planet. In her inspiring and deeply thoughtful new book, Carolyn Steel, author of Hungry City, points the way to a better future.

How to Live Well on a Hungry Planet

Sitopia

*Cities cover just 2% of the world's surface, but consume 75% of the world's resources *Global food production increased by 145% in the last 4 decades of the 20th century - yet an estimated 800 million people are still hungry *In 2005 British supermarkets sent half a million tonnes of edible food to landfill - the whole food sector put together sent 17 million tonnes *100 years ago, the average Brit ate 25kg of meat each year - now it's 80kg (and for Americans, 124kg) *One quarter of the British population is obese - one in three meals we eat is a ready meal WHY?The relationship between food and cities is fundamental to our every day lives. Food shapes cities, and through them, it moulds us - along with the countryside that feeds us. The gargantuan effort necessary to feed cities arguably has a greater social and physical impact on us and our planet than anything else we do. Yet few of us are conscious of the process and we rarely stop to wonder how food reaches our plates. Hungry Cityexamines the way in which modern food production has damaged the balance of human existence, and reveals that we have yet to resolve a centuries-old dilemma - one which holds the key to a host of current problems, from obesity, the inexorable rise of the supermarkets, to the destruction of the natural world. Carolyn Steel follows food on its journey - from the land (and sea) to market and supermarket, kitchen to table, waste-dump and back again - exploring the historical roots and the contemporary issues at each stage of food's cycle. She shows how our lives and our environment are being manipulated but explains how we can change things for the better. Original, inspiring and written with infectious enthusiasm and belief,Hungry Cityilluminates an issue that is fundamental to us all.

How Food Shapes Our Lives

Hungry City

Paweł Bravo

jak jedzenie może ocalić świat

Charlotte Birnbaum

Sanford Kwinter

Daniel Birnbaum

Tobias Rehberger

Mike Bouchet

Fabrice Mazliah

David Ruy

Kivi Sotamaa

Jan Aman

CULINARY LESSONS - The Space of Food is based on a series of events, Culinary Lessons, which were hosted by the Städelschule Architecture Class and which engaged with the relation between food, art and architecture. The series addressed the enormous so- cial, economic and cultural spaces that accompany the production and consumption of food, and attempted to unravel some of these spaces' structure and dynamics. The central ambition was to learn from culinary history and, not the least, the recent vanguard of culinary practice. No human activity is so encompassing and engenders such ef- fects on our societies and lives as the culinary. Culinary practices lay out aesthetic as much as ethical trajectories that span from century-old traditions to lifesaving experiments for the present and future. They provide for human sustenance and the highest form of bodily enjoyment while transversing the spaces that they at once produce and profoundly affect. This fourth issue of the SAC JOURNAL presents the central con- versation in Culinary Lessons, which took place in Venice, together with a series of texts and projects that chart and speculate on the relationship between architecture, art and the culinary wor- ld. Contributors to this issue include, amongst others, Charlotte Birnbaum, Daniel Birnbaum, Mike Bouchet, Sanford Kwinter, Fabrice Mazliah, Tobias Rehberger, David Ruy, Kivi Sotamaa, Carolyn Steel, Jan Åman and Johan Bettum. It also features the winning projects of the AIV Master Thesis Prize in 2015 and 2016. SAC JOURNAL is a publication series that addresses topical isues within architecture. The journal documents, critically reviews and presents theoretical discussions concerning contemporary design and research. The content of SAC JOURNAL is produced by invited contributors and students and faculty at the Städel- schule Architecture Class.

SAC Journal 4

Culinary Lesson: The Space of Food

Carolyn Steel

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