The founder of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), Vicente Guallart, has been invited by the Royal Danish Academy to give a lecture in the framework of the event “Food Scapes: Future Spaces of Sustainable Food Production”.
The conference, that addresses the necessary and emerging restructuring of food production systems from a spatial perspective, will take place on Tuesday 25th of October 2022 at Det Kongelige Akademi, Auditorium 2, Copenhagen.
What role can territorial and spatial planning, and architecture play in reorienting food production toward preferable spatial, social, climatic, environmental, and biodiverse outcomes?
The intention of the conference Food Scapes: Future Spaces of Sustainable Food Production is to reflect on the potential for the evolving developments to contribute to challenges of climate mitigation, climate adaptation, biodiversity, and food security/sovereignty.
Participants and lecturers will debate about what might be the relevant modalities of spatial planning and architecture within this field of activity, particularly in times of increased environmental crisis, political inertia, and a dearth of concrete spatial visions for a way forward.
Vicente Guallart will be giving a lecture about how these issues are addressed by IAAC in the framework of the research carried on by the Valldaura Labs, and its laboratories for the production of energy, food and things, which develop projects and Academic Programmes in association with leading research centres around the world.
Among the projects developed by Valldaura Labs stands the Solar Greenhouse, a full-scale prototype that actively aids in the intensive food production efforts developed with 2020-2021 MAEBB students.
Modern day living requires the reinterpretation of our collective societal needs, food production and its processing have become a main focus for self-sufficiency. For years, Valldaura Labs has been involved in revitalising the agricultural potential of the historic mountain valley it is located within, combining tacit knowledge with advanced tools and agrology techniques. The Solar Greenhouse represents the next bold step towards transforming the lessons of this local condition into a more ecologically focused agricultural solution for the wider urban context.