In: Urban Agriculture Magazine no 22. Building Resilient Cities pp. 37-38 June 2009

Abstract: The concept of resilient cities is increasingly heard today. Whereas in southern countries access to food is a major motivation for people to engage in urban agriculture, in northern cities, such as London, people are driven more by environmental reasons such as the damaging effects of excessive food miles. Regardless of the motivation, urban agriculture is a positive step toward greater resilience.

The paper can be read here www.ruaf.org/book/

The French poet and artist Jean Cocteau (1927) once stated that all art is anonymous, in that authors are rarely present when people view their art. This is also true of the built environment, which is largely silent of architects’ voices, filled instead by the hubbub of the daily intervention of residents. The PhD explores one intervention – community food-gardening – as it is presently emerging within six inner London housing estates.

In a series of interviews, estate residents explicitly expressed frustration at the “blank”, “bleak”, “disused”, “neglected”, “barren”, “grey” and “derelict” landscapes surrounding their homes, voicing instead a desire to re-use them “productively” through food-gardening. However, the PhD argues that while food is enunciated as the primary concept, it is a set of primary practices, such as the construction of the self-built, food-producing landscape, the creation of shared social narratives and the interaction with natural resources that dominate.

Thus the gardeners should not be confined by the urban food discourse, exemplified within civic agriculture, which seeks to link consumers to food production by its (re)localisation. Rather, what needs to be explored is the re-linking of residents to architecture, landscape, and the planning of cities. As one resident put it, gardeners are “amateur architects”, augmenting the pre-planned architecture with a bricolage of seasonal, quotidian, and playful performances. This challenges formal architectural space and place through soil, the growing of food, and its social harvesting.

Using multi-site participant observation, semi-structured interviews and photography, the research throws new light into this overshadowed everyday food-gardening activity that often falls within the penumbra of the productive, economic and environmental “feeding cities” UA discourse. It confirms that self-grown food, within the built environment, is a primeval and emotional scream muffled by our current relentless food supply systems. Similarly, postwar Town and Country Planning Acts have muted the multiple narratives of play, knowledge, and self-building that are finally escaping, fuelled via this tiny, self-made harvest.

In “London Gardener”. Journal of the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust.

Volume fourteen. 2008-2009

A PDF of the article can be downloaded here: Mikey Tomkins London Gardener

The project is both digital (click here for digital version) or as a walk (click here to book).

The digital version is interactive and will develop during September.

The A2 printed version is available free during the (also free) walks or you can purchase a copy by emailing me.

Between 05 – 20th September 2010 Mikey will be conducting edible walks around Hackney using the edible map as a guide.

To book a place Visit the SPACE gallery website Booking is FREE but essential!

September Dates and Times:
Sunday 5th 10am – 11am, Tuesday 7th 2pm – 3pm, Friday 10th 10am – 11pm, Sunday 12th 10am – 11am, Tuesday 14th 2pm – 3pm, Friday 17th 10am – 11am, Sunday 19th 10am – 11am

Each walk last approximately one hour. There are places for five people on each walk. The walks are not lectures but will form part of a discussion about architecture, planning and foods apparent exclusion and potential inclusion. The walks will be audio recorded and  used on a web version of the edible map.

Mikey Tomkins, local beekeeper and PhD student at the University of Brighton has created the project.

A. Viljoen¹, K. Bohn², M. Tomkins¹, and G. Denny³.

The joint paper can be read here: viljoen-luhort-22-7-09

The thesis asks the essential question – How much open, grassed land, is available around for the Elephant and Castle to grow food, and how many people would this feed?

The full thesis can be read at www.cityfarmer.org

This year has been a good year. No swarms, happy bees, and a good crop of honey.

Mikey Tomkins, Rooftop hive, RFH

These photographs, taken over several years, document the activity of growing food in public space. This is an ongoing project.