Food in Cities with Carolyn Steel

What if infrastructure could breathe, adapt, evolve? Living Infrastructures signals a shift—from static systems to dynamic, responsive ecologies. These are infrastructures that do more than support urban life; they participate in it.They sense their surroundings. They metabolize energy. They learn from their users. Built from biological and technological hybrids, they redefine the edge between organism and architecture.Imagine skins that regulate climate like leaves, surfaces that respond to touch, structures that grow, decay, and regenerate. This is not architecture as object—but as system, as interface, as actor.Living infrastructures expand the role of design: not only to construct, but to cultivate. They embed cognition into matter, embed ethics into form, and embed cities into the cycles of life itself.In this new paradigm, buildings are not just built—they are grown. Systems are not fixed—they adapt. The city is not a machine—it’s an ecosystem.For architects, planners, and landscape designers, this is a call to think metabolically, design ecologically, and build responsively. Infrastructure, reimagined—not as inert support, but as a living weave in the fabric of the urban.

Green New Deal Landscapes is a series hosted by Jose Alfredo Ramírez and Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, both co-directors of AA Groundlab. Each session discusses the relationship between policy making and our environment and explores how we can tackle climate change through landscape design. Alfredo is joined by Danika Cooper and Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió to talk about indigenous practices in landscape design and how they can be crucial in tackling not only the climate emergency but also social injustice. The conversation is a follow-up on the article The Red Deal: Decolonising Climate Action published in AD: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad.2776 Learn more about Danika Cooper’s work: http://www.danikacooper.com/ https://ced.berkeley.edu/people/danika-cooper Learn more about Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió’s work: https://usp.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/profiles/Shvartzberg_Manuel.html https://www.sternberg-press.com/product/productive-universals-specific-situations/ This space has been sponsored by Actar Publishers and urbanNext.net. For the most engaging publications on architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture visit: http://actar.com/ For access to exclusive digital content subscribe to: https://urbannext.net/ The urbanNext_exchanges series is curated by Ricardo Devesa and Marta Bugés. Feel free to contact us via email at [email protected] if you want to comment on the podcast or share your work with us.

Green New Deal Landscapes is a series hosted by Jose Alfredo Ramírez and Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, both co-directors of AA Groundlab. Each session discusses the relationship between policy making and our environment and explores how we can tackle climate change through landscape design. Alfredo and Clara are joined by Billy Fleming and Douglas Spencer to discuss the role of the architecture profession in tackling climate change and social justice. The conversation is a follow-up on the article Crises and Contestations: The Promise and Peril of Designing a Green New Deal published in AD: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad.2769 Learn more about Billy Fleming’s work: https://mcharg.upenn.edu/ https://islandpress.org/books/blueprint-coastal-adaptation https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/books/design-nature-now Learn more about Douglas Spencer’s work: https://spatialregister.wordpress.com/ https://birkhauser.com/books/9783035621648 https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/architecture-of-neoliberalism-9781472581532/ This space has been sponsored by Actar Publishers and urbanNext.net. For the most engaging publications on architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture visit: http://actar.com/ For access to exclusive digital content subscribe to: https://urbannext.net/ The urbanNext_exchanges series is curated by Ricardo Devesa and Marta Bugés. Feel free to contact us via email at [email protected] if you want to comment on the podcast or share your work with us.

Green New Deal Landscapes is a series hosted by Jose Alfredo Ramírez and Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, both co-directors of AA Groundlab. Each session discusses the relationship between policy making and our environment and explores how we can tackle climate change through landscape design. Alfredo is joined by Neil Brenner and Kai Heron to discuss global environmental politics and inherited approaches to urbanization. The conversation is a follow-up on the article Towards the Abolition of the Hinterlands published in AD: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad.2781 Learn more about Neil Brenner’s work: https://sociology.uchicago.edu/directory/neil-brenner https://chicago.academia.edu/NeilBrenner https://urbantheorylab.net/ Learn more about Kai Heron’s work: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/profile/9330067/kai-heron This space has been sponsored by Actar Publishers and urbanNext.net. For the most engaging publications on architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture visit: http://actar.com/ For access to exclusive digital content subscribe to: https://urbannext.net/ The urbanNext_exchanges series is curated by Ricardo Devesa and Marta Bugés. Feel free to contact us via email at [email protected] if you want to comment on the podcast or share your work with us.

Green New Deal Landscapes is a series hosted by Jose Alfredo Ramírez and Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, both co-directors of AA Groundlab. Each session discusses the relationship between policy making and our environment and explores how we can tackle climate change through landscape design. Alfredo is joined by Alex Breedon, Liam Mouritz and Kaylie Salvatori to talk about how a decolonial cultural shift in land management can contribute to the mitigation of the climate crisis and the need to learn from design practices and knowledges from indigenous cultures in the Australian context. The conversation is a follow-up on the article Country-Led Approaches in Land Management and Design published in AD: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ad.2778 Learn more about Alex Breedon’s work: https://www.aspect-studios.com/people/alex-breedon Learn more about Liam Mouritz’s work: https://aaschool.academia.edu/LiamMouritz https://www.hassellstudio.com/conversation/open-source-city https://landscapeaustralia.com/articles/an-issue-on-time/ https://issuu.com/aalandscapeurbanism/docs/littoral_negotiations Learn more about Kaylie Salvatori’s work: https://www.colastudio.com.au/cola-studiobr> This space has been sponsored by Actar Publishers and urbanNext.net. For the most engaging publications on architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture visit: http://actar.com/ For access to exclusive digital content subscribe to: https://urbannext.net/ The urbanNext_exchanges series is curated by Ricardo Devesa and Marta Bugés. Feel free to contact us via email at [email protected] if you want to comment on the podcast or share your work with us.

Green New Deal Landscapes is a series hosted by Jose Alfredo Ramírez and Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, both co-directors of AA Groundlab. Each session discusses the relationship between policy making and our environment and explores how we can tackle climate change through landscape design. Alfredo is joined by Amelia Horgan, Julian Siravo and Kate Soper to talk about the role of working models shape the landscape and its contribution to climate change. The conversation is a follow-up on the article Making Space for Green Work published in AD: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad.2774 Learn more about Amelia Horgan’s work: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745347790/lost-in-work/ Learn more about Julian Siravo’s work: https://autonomy.work/portfolio/ltccs/ https://autonomy.work/portfolio/workingnights/ https://autonomy.work/portfolio/blueprintforremotework/ Learn more about Kate Soper’s work: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3693-post-growth-living https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/08/pandemic-covid-19-work-society https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/05/what-kind-post-covid-recovery-do-we-want This space has been sponsored by Actar Publishers and urbanNext.net. For the most engaging publications on architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture visit: http://actar.com/ For access to exclusive digital content subscribe to: https://urbannext.net/ The urbanNext_exchanges series is curated by Ricardo Devesa and Marta Bugés. Feel free to contact us via email at [email protected] if you want to comment on the podcast or share your work with us.

Green New Deal Landscapes is a series hosted by Jose Alfredo Ramírez and Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, both co-directors of AA Groundlab. Each session discusses the relationship between policy making and our environment and explores how we can tackle climate change through landscape design. Alfredo and Clara are joined by Elena Luciano, Yasmina Yehia and Daniel Kiss, graduates from Landscape Urbanism at the Architectural Association. The students researched on landscape management in Wales and Antartica, and got involved with local communities and organizations, to understand the many layers operating in these territories. The conversation is a follow-up on the articles the students wrote for the AD issue edited by Jose Alfredo Ramírez titled Green New Deal Landscapes: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15542769/2022/92/1 Elena Luciano and Yasmina Yehia, together with Rafael Martinez Caldera worked on the project Just Transition: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad.2771 https://issuu.com/aalandscapeurbanism/docs/190920_aa_landscape_urbanism_just_transition_desig Daniel Kiss, together with Swadheet Chaturvedi worked on the project Dynamic Domains of Antartica: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad.2772 https://issuu.com/aalandscapeurbanism/docs/dd_dynamic_domains_aalandscapeurbanism2020b This space has been sponsored by Actar Publishers and urbanNext.net. For the most engaging publications on architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture visit: http://actar.com/ For access to exclusive digital content subscribe to: https://urbannext.net/ The urbanNext_exchanges series is curated by Ricardo Devesa and Marta Bugés. Feel free to contact us via email at [email protected] if you want to comment on the podcast or share your work with us.

Green New Deal Landscapes is a series hosted by Jose Alfredo Ramírez and Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, both co-directors of AA Groundlab. Each session discusses the relationship between policy making and our environment and explores how we can tackle climate change through landscape design. Alfredo is joined by Lindsay Bremner to talk about new methodological procedures and narrative strategies in mapping the landscape to understand complex relationships within the Earth. The conversation is a follow-up on the article Monsoonal Solidarity: A Global Approach to Climate Justice published in AD: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ad.2779 Learn more about Lindsay Bremner’s work: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/bremner-lindsay https://actar.com/product/monsoon-as-method/ https://urbannext.net/drawing-the-monsoon/ http://westminster.academia.edu/LindsayBremner http://monass.org/ http://exhibition.monass.org/ https://geoarchitecture.wordpress.com/ This space has been sponsored by Actar Publishers and urbanNext.net. For the most engaging publications on architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture visit: http://actar.com/ For access to exclusive digital content subscribe to: https://urbannext.net/ The urbanNext_exchanges series is curated by Ricardo Devesa and Marta Bugés. Feel free to contact us via email at [email protected] if you want to comment on the podcast or share your work with us.

Green New Deal Landscapes is a series hosted by Jose Alfredo Ramírez and Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, both co-directors of AA Groundlab. Each session discusses the relationship between policy making and our environment and explores how we can tackle climate change through landscape design. Alfredo and Clara are joined by Jane Hutton and Alison Creba to discuss building and construction practices aligned with the Green New Deal movement to tackle the environmental breakdown. The conversation is a follow-up on their article Taking Apart Buildings and Systems published in AD: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ad.2775 Learn more about Alison Creba’s work: https://localtechnique.ca/ Learn more about Jane Hutton's work: https://www.routledge.com/Reciprocal-Landscapes-Stories-of-Material-Movements/Hutton/p/book/9781138830684 https://actar.com/product/wood-urbanism/ This space has been sponsored by Actar Publishers and urbanNext.net. For the most engaging publications on architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture visit: http://actar.com/ For access to exclusive digital content subscribe to: https://urbannext.net/ The urbanNext_exchanges series is curated by Ricardo Devesa and Marta Bugés. Feel free to contact us via email at [email protected] if you want to comment on the podcast or share your work with us.

Feeding its citizens has been one of the main challenges of cities since its earliest history. Although industrialization has overcome many issues, it has also created new ones that need to be urgently addressed. Carolyn Steel is a leading thinker on food and cities and the author of the books Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives and Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World. Thanks to her concept sitopia, which means food-place, Carolyn has raised awareness on what it takes to feed urban settlements and improve their food system. Learn more about Carolyn's work: https://www.carolynsteel.com/hungrycitybook https://www.carolynsteel.com/sitopiabook