Objectives
This project-based course aims to teach students to reflect, through a project, on the city in relation to a social issue : food. To what extent is the city capable of addressing this issue ? The issue of food is becoming increasingly important in cities, touching on a range of issues : healthy eating and health, educational values and solidarity, the fight against food insecurity, the reduction of food waste... The pandemic has heightened this focus, as the city finds itself under pressure to meet this basic need : food.

City stakeholders are taking on new responsibilities : authorities are developing policies and projects (e.g. the Territorial Food Project) ; private sector actors have already positioned themselves within the food economy ; civil society has seen an increase in its associative and cooperative engagement on this issue ; as for technical professionals (architects, urban planners, landscape architects, etc.), they are being called upon for various spatial interventions :
– the relocation of productive areas within the city ;
– the emergence of new supply chains ;
– food processing facilities in the city ;
– collection and redistribution points for unsold food ;
– the recycling of organic waste, etc.

These new challenges are giving rise to new professions and new approaches. The proposed project is based on several premises : a key stakeholder, namely associations involved in food-related urban regeneration ; a municipal area, the town of Montreuil, chosen for its horticultural history and the constraints of its territory (no land available to develop ‘conventional’ urban agriculture) ; areas and a food chain spanning production, supply, processing, consumption and recycling.

Audience
First-year Master’s students

Procedure
The semester is divided into four stages :
– stage 1 : meeting with an association working on food issues in Montreuil ;
– phase 2 : creating a profile and mapping the food systems of various associations ;
– phase 3 : identifying a key issue and developing a project-process on the evolution of food systems ;
– phase 4 : producing a collective document on the city as a food provider (map, film, exhibition, etc.).

In partnership with the Murs-à-Pêches federation (in particular Pascal Mage), the MAP association, and Parisian associations, particularly in the Goutte d’Or neighbourhood (Quartier libre, Jardin de l’Univert, etc.). Exchanges and mobility programmes with UCV in Caracas (Erasmus+) focusing on community service.

Teaching team
Claudio Secci
Marcos Colina
Christophe Vallecillo
Luis Lopez