Magical Foodscape : A Guidebook For Re-planning The Cities Base On The Culture, Food And The Built Environment

Abstract

Earth, agriculture, fishing, hunting and gathering—— the ways of acquiring food and also the factors dominating the settlements’ landscape pattern in the primitive society, has been gradually replaced by manufacturing, financial industry and service industry through thousands of years of urbanization. Nowadays, ‘food’ is no longer the overriding factor for urban planning while urban pattern still has its profound leverage on the long-term development of catering. Under the COVID-19 epidemic, the common problem faced by different countries and regions —— food shortage, inspired us to reflect on the place of food in urban life. Through our investigation on Chengdu, Xi’an, Wuhan and Shanghai, the four cities that featured by different and distinctive food culture and exploration of the distribution pattern and potential of grain origin, delivery chain, processing chain and retailers in these cities, we intend to take urban green space as carrier to improve efficiency of food production, absorption and processing, drive the efficient use of urban space base on landscape, promote efficient circulation of food and efficient spread of culture, alleviate food problems under social crisis and improve the city’s ability to respond to social emergency via ‘foodscape’.