Food & Health: Science & Systems for a Healthy Sustainable Future

… with a perspective on

Food meets Space Nutrition meets Architecture

Speaker:  Dr. Martin Kussmann
                  Head of Knowledge & Innovation 
                  Kompetenzzentrum für Ernährung (KErn)

Humanity in the Anthropocene is facing two enormous challenges: sustainable generation and consumption of energy and food. The green revolution and modern agriculture have written an unprecedented success story: over the last 60 years, the world’s population almost tripled from three to eight billion, yet the still regrettable number of undernourished people remained constant at 800 million. However, this achievement has come at a high price of climate change, biodiversity loss and compromised land and water quality. Hence, “business as usual” is not an option as we are currently consuming approximately 1.5 “earth GDPs” per year.

Food systems lie at the center of solutions to these sustainability challenges. Systems science and thinking are therefore emerging in the agricultural, food, nutrition and health sectors. We need integrated healthy and sustainable solutions “from seed to fork” along the value chain from agriculture via raw material processing, food production and retail, food technology, nutrition science and consumer insights. After all, our answers must not only be healthy and sustainable but also affordable, convenient and attractive to be accepted by consumers and eventually make a real difference at scale and on time.

So, where does food meet space and nutrition meet architecture Architecture designs and plans infrastructure where people live, eat, work and travel? These built environments have great impact on human and planetary health as they co determine quality and availability of food, nutrition and health care. Food meets architecture in kitchens, restaurants, catering supermarkets, farms, as well as food processing and production facilities. These interfaces are of utmost relevance to a highly urbanized world population where the majority lives in metropolitan hubs with many million inhabitants. Both food and architectural solutions must therefore acknowledge these realities and circumstances: for global scale and relevance, we must bring good food into big cities in a sustainable fashion. Architecture furthermore can connect environment and infrastructure: photovoltaics on agriculturally used fields and urban farming are such hybrid models of combined and more sustainable use of energy, natural products, and settlements.

Date: Wednesday, Oktober 23, 2024

Time: 11:30 - 12:30 pm + Q&A

Language: English

Location:
Room: 0340B
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Presentation at European Architectural History Network - EAHN 2024 Conference in Athens

Our PhD Candidate Qëndresa Ajeti, participated in the European Architectural History Network - EAHN 2024 Conference in Athens from 19-23 June 2024 with the presentation titled Activism and Heritage Production in Post-socialist Kosovo: The Case of Former Department Store “Germia”

Since the collapse of the Yugoslav socialist state system in the early 1990s, the countries that were once part of it have undergone a complicated process of social, economic and political transformation. The new political scene in Kosovo, has brought the legacy of architecture built during former Yugoslavia to the forefront of an ongoing debate about its valuation and classification as heritage. In recent years, many social movements are playing an important role in shaping cultural identities and narratives for this contentious legacy to the society and political actors in Kosovo, through different tactics of mobilization. This research aims to fill the gap in literature by exploring the implications of social movement involvement in heritage activism, including its impact on identity formation, intergroup relations, and political processes, through the case study “Ish-Germia”(Prishtina). The objective is to explore the evolution of the urban activism over thirty years in the perception of this building, by analysing the heritagisation process of it, where intersect activists, community, political actors and international institutions.

Participation in the International Conference titled Architecture and Coastal Tourism (1960-1980): fragility between Historical Studies and New Scenario at Politecnico di Milano

Our PhD Candidate, Qëndresa Ajeti, participated in the International Conference titled Architecture and Coastal Tourism (1960-1980): fragility between Historical Studies and New Scenario that took place at the Mantova Campus-Politecnico di Milano on 21,22 May 2024. Her presentation is titled Coastal Area of Malinska: From socialist past to western capitalism.

The construction of the Adriatic Highway along the coastline of Former Yugoslavia in 1954 marks an important step of Yugoslav authorities attempt to create a cohesive territory from previously disconnected fragments of coastline. After the breakup with the Soviet Union in 1948 the country was left with a fragile economy, that oriented the authorities towards tourism as a beneficial economic resource and possibility to attract west investments in Yugoslavia. The case study of this research, Malinska, a little town in the island of Krk in Croatia became a successful holiday place during the 70s, that attracted western investments and tourists.

This study aims to explore the shift that happened to this little town through the political and economic changes the country experienced itself, from the socialist past to the western capitalism. A focal point of the study will be Holudovo Palace hotel. The hotel that was once one of the most extravagant and aesthetic touristic complexes in Yugoslavia, that became a ruin and vandalized complex nowadays.