Thinkspace: Carolyn Steel

A lecture by the leading thinker on food and cities as part of the Thinkspace series.

Sitopia: How food can save the world

We live in a world shaped by food: a place I call ‘sitopia’ (from Gk. sitos, food + topos, place). Whether or not we see it, food’s influence is everywhere: in our bodies, habits, homes, cities, landscapes, economics, politics and climate. Yet by forgetting to value food, we have created a bad sitopia: climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, water depletion, pollution, mass extinction, pandemics and diet-related disease are just some of the ‘externalities’ of the way we now eat. Our lives are built on the illusion of cheap food, yet so such thing exists. Only by revaluing food and harnessing its power for good can we hope to thrive on our crowded, overheating planet. Although sitopia is not utopia, consciously reshaping our world through food is our most direct route to creating a healthier, fairer and more resilient future.

About the speaker

Carolyn Steel is a leading thinker on food and cities. Her award-winning books Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives (2008) and Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World (2020) have won international acclaim and her concept of ‘sitopia’ (food-place) has gained broad recognition across a range of fields in academia, design, industry and the arts. Since studying architecture at Cambridge University, Carolyn has run design studios and lectured at a number of universities including Cambridge, London Metropolitan, Wageningen and Slow Food (UNISG) in Pollenzo, as well as at the London School of Economics, where she was inaugural Studio Director of the Cities Programme. Carolyn is a non-executive director of Kilburn Nightingale Architects in London and a trustee of the Oxford Food Symposium. She is in worldwide demand as a speaker and her 2009 TEDGlobal talk has received more than one million views.

About Thinkspace

Thinkspace is a new lecture series organised by the Farrell Centre and SPACE Architects to mark 70 years of the practice. It asks how places acquire their character and who gets a say in what they become. Find out more

Photo: © Erroll Jones