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Urbanism projects

Urbanism projects on food

Dr Parham has completed or is researching a range of urbanism projects on food and other aspects of place making as detailed below.

Chapter on food retrofitting in new 'Shrinking Cities' book

Dr Parham has a chapter, 'Shrinking Cities and Food: Placemaking for Sustainable Renewal, Reuse and Retrofit', in the newly published Future Directions for the European Shrinking City edited by William J.V. Neill and UH colleague, Dr Hans Schlappa. Out with Routledge (2016) the chapter explores food-centred retrofit possibilities taking Hatfield as a kind of urban laboratory for these design-based approaches. The chapter is based on work completed by Dr Parham and research fellow Ben McCabe whose excellent illustrations demonstrate some ways of building back in productive food spaces into a new town environment.

Food and Urbanism

Dr Parham has recently completed her book, Food and Urbanism: Towards the Convivial City and a Sustainable Future which came out with Bloomsbury in February 2015. The book focuses on the way that despite the growing demand on urban resources and infrastructure, food is still often overlooked as a key factor in planning and designing cities. Dr Parham argues that without considering design for food at all stages – from how it is grown, transported, and bought, to cooked, eaten and disposed of – it is impossible to create truly resilient and convivial urbanism.

Market Place

Food and Urbanism is a companion to Dr Parham's earlier book, Market Place: Food Quarters, Design And Urban Renewal In London (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012) in which Dr Parham explored the ways that food quarters are developing in London and whether new interconnections between physical design and socio-spatial practices in relation to food promise to offer cities greater conviviality and sustainability and provide interesting models for food-informed design and planning elsewhere.

Making Space For Food In Hatfield

Making Space For Food In Hatfield, is a research project undertaken by Susan Parham and Ben McCabe using text and visualisations it offers design-based scenarios for responding to local concerns about and opportunities in relation to food growing, distribution, retail, consumption and treatment of food waste in Hatfield. The research makes use of design ideas about retrofitting current in the urbanism literature to explore some of the ways food and the built environment could interconnect in Hatfield to support a sustainable local food system and contribute to making a more liveable place in a New Town context. The report of the research will be available later in 2016.