Food Atlas Vienna: A collective cartography of the urban food landscape

Abstract

What does the city taste like? How are our eating habits related to the city and its urban characteristics? A growing number of cities see urban food as an opportunity for a sustainable and resilient development. Vienna, which according to the Mercer study is one of the most liveable cities, has enormous potential in terms of urban food production and cohesive, productive landscapes.

However, there is a lack of holistic consideration. Also a network of the existing and future possible components is missing. In the context of the Vienna Biennale 2021 we realize the project of the Food Atlas Vienna. This project questions the discipline of urban planning in terms of the existing urban food system and regional cycles. Additionally, it combines spatial mapping with innovative design possibilities with regard to a sustainable metropolitan region. Especially for a topic as complex as the urban food system, cross-media mapping serves as a suitable process. Together with the inhabitants of the city, a new mindset was developed at four different locations in Vienna. By using different approaches and tools, we create methods and synchronous visualizations to make connections between food and urban morphology visible. The mobile tank station serves as a hub for the cross-media process, in which knowledge around food is (re)activated, collected and shared. We work at the interface between analogue and digital, physically present in urban space as well as in digital space. Our tools are a continuously growing digital map, a dialogue-oriented event, a food mailbox and alike. The goal is to develop a lively, interactive cartography of Vienna’s food landscape by genuinely involving the city‘s inhabitants. This project offers the chance to test various possibilities of mapping as well as to develop new ones and then to present them in an experiential and coherent way.