Film screening: 'The Urbal Fix' by Tom Bliss

Uniniversity of Brighton School of Architecture and Design are please to announce a free public screening of Tom Bliss' film 'The Urbal Fix' as part of the AESOP 2nd European sustainable Food Planning Conference.

Venue: Sallis Benney Theatre, Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton, 58-67 Grand Parade
Date: Friday 29 October, 6 pm

'The Urbal Fix' is a film that puts cities into the driving seat of an adaptive strategy against imminent resource depletion, economic chaos and climate crisis.

'Rurban' describes the bleeding of unsustainable urban consumerism into formerly healthy rural resources. Its polar opposite, 'Urbal', describes the only logical cure: The injection of countryside, by means of green productivity, deep into the heart of our cities.

Presented by landscape architect and film maker Tom Bliss, the film features contributions by Hilary Benn MP, Professor Katrin Bohn (CPULs), Professor Lord Tony Giddens (Former Director LSE), Andy Goldring (Permaculture Association), Nick Green (Incredible Edible Todmorden), Sir Peter Hall (Town and Country Planning Association), Professor Tim Lang (City University, Food Policy), Daniel O’Neill (Centre for the Advancement of Steady State Economics), Jonathan Porritt (Environmentalist), Professor Robert Tregay (Landscape Architect) and many other activists, politicians, academics, designers, entrepreneurs, and growers.

Urbalism is the distillation of a select range of theories: Ebenezer Howard's pre motor-car Social City provides a 'once and future' ergonomic, political and economic framework. Steady State Theory provides a contextual objective. CPULs provide a spatial structure plus psychological and ecological priorities. Bio-mimicry systems (permaculture, community woodlands, SUDs) offer low impact / high yield outputs with biodiversity, ecological services and biosequestration benefits. Natural England and the NHS provide additional ergonomics and justification via health and well-being co-benefits. Incredible Edible Todmorden and other temporary, guerrilla and planned schemes in West Yorkshire provide proof and inspiration. And engagement, co-design and local empowerment imperatives demand a new multi/trans-disciplinary approach for designers and other 'experts' - as championed by The Urbal Institute.

For more on the AESOP 2nd European sustainable Food Planning Conference, see: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/aesop2