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The Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) ‘President's Award for Outstanding University-located Research’ has been awarded to academics from the university’s College of Arts and Humanities, Professor André Viljoen, Research Initiatives Leader, and Katrin Bohn, Senior Lecturer and recent Guest Professor at the Technical University of Berlin.

The award was presented at a gala evening at RIBA’s headquarters in London on 2 December.

The award-winning research is centred on the academics’ concept of Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL) which bridges a gap between sustainable thinking and lifestyles and current urban design debates.

Katrin Bohn and Professor Viljoen are leading figures researching the urban and architectural design implications of sustainable urban food systems. Much of this research is cross-disciplinary, engaging with artists, design researchers, planning and development practitioners and the public. Both actively use their research to inform teaching and learning in design at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

From left to right Karin Jaschke,  Professor Viljoen, Professor Gillian Youngs, Howard Lee (Hadlow College), Katrin Bohn, Professor Anne Boddington, Mikey Tomkins (Brighton PhD Graduate)

From left to right Professor Flora Samuel Chair of the RIBA Research and Innovation Group, Professor Andre Viljoen,  Katrin Bohn, Jane Duncan President of the Royal Institute of British Architects

The award recognises the academics’ 2014 book ‘Second Nature Urban Agriculture: Designing Productive Cities’ which encapsulates a body of research from the past ten years and includes commentaries from international expert practitioners and theoreticians. It advances the theoretical case for CPULs with practical examples thereby exploring the architectural and urban design consequences of sustainable urban food systems.

The book also describes how to incorporate urban agriculture within open spaces and buildings creating a multifunctional productive urban landscape with the aim of advancing the quality of urban life while minimising the ecological footprint of cities.

Current and recent research activities include a major prototype productive urban landscape led by Katrin Bohn in the Berlin suburb of Marzahn and an Arts and Humanities Research Council international network led by Professor Viljoen exploring pathways to policy in support of productive urban landscapes.

With the network they are exploring possibilities for an action research project to further test the CPUL concept in Letchworth, the world’s first Garden City. Bohn also leads a specialised architectural and environmental research consultancy with Professor Viljoen with projects mainly in Germany and the UK.

Katrin Bohn and Professor Viljoen, in a joint statement, said “Receiving this major award is a great honour for us and for all those working in the rapidly expanding world of ‘productive urban landscapes’. It recognises not only our work but that of the many individuals, organisations and cities putting these ideas into practice.”  

In addition to their award, University of Brighton Masters in Architecture student, Irene Klokkari, received a commendation for her RIBA Part 2 Dissertation ‘Memories of Famagusta: recapturing the image of the city through the memories of refugee’ .

The university’s Dr Karin Jaschke, Senior Lecturer and subject leader in postgraduate Architectural Humanities, was a member of the .

In attendance at the awards was Professor Anne Boddington, Dean of the University of Brighton’s College of Arts and Humanities, and Professor Gillian Youngs, the university’s Professor of Digital Economy.