Workshop
NEIGHBOURHOODS OF RESILIENCE: Local Action for Food Security and Preparedness
Date: Wednesday, 6th May
Location: Innoasis, Sverdrups gate 27
Time: 12.00 – 15.00
Hosted by: TEAL & Nordic Edge Agritech Cluster
Strategic Partner: UK Urban AgriTech (UKUAT)
about this Workshop
What would it take — practically, technically, socially — to turn rooftops, courtyards, vacant lots and underused buildings in a single Stavanger neighbourhood into a working local food system? This three-hour, hands-on workshop brings together architects, urban planners, horticulturalists, real-estate developers, civil servants and engaged citizens to do exactly that: collaboratively sketch a neighbourhood-scale urban food system masterplan for Stavanger — grounded in real maps, real regulations and real local capacity.
What to Expect
The session combines short research-led inputs with collaborative mapping on a shared Miro board, structured across three focused modules. Participants will engage in a strategic design exercise to:
- Assess Urban Potential: Map underutilised buildings, courtyards, rooftops and existing resource flows using the Urban Food System matrix and metabolic mapping.
- Build Social and Technical Frameworks: Identify viable growing systems, business models and cooperation agreements between citizens, technology providers, property owners and local government.
- Strengthen Preparedness: Translate neighbourhood-level production into a tangible contribution to regional resilience and local food autonomy.
Short introductions with relevant projects and/or studies
Oscar Rodrigues, UKUAT
Urban Food Systems: Modes, Intents, Metabolics and Networks. A framework for thinking about urban food production not as one thing but as a spectrum — from low-tech allotments to building-integrated agriculture and vertical farms — and the metabolic flows and cooperative networks that make them viable alongside industrial agriculture.
Jørgen Skatland, NTNU
Neighbourhood-based food systems: Mapping local capacity in Stavanger.
Research-backed insights from socio-ecological transformation work in Stavanger, providing a foundation for understanding what local food capacity actually looks like at street and block level.
Håkon Nilsen, Stavanger Municipality
Experiences from "Dyrk Hillevåg"
- urban farming in the Hillevåg district Lessons from a live municipal urban farming initiative — what works, what stalls, how to navigate planning legislation, and how to incentivise citizen engagement when the people who would benefit most often have the least time to participate.
The Innovation Journey
This workshop is a key milestone in a larger strategic initiative for Rogaland. Outputs — collaborative design sketches, metabolic flow maps and draft cooperation agreements — form a concrete starting point for a Stavanger Urban Food System Masterplan, to be matured and presented at the
What's Growing 2026
conference (June 11), with focus on market realisation, regulatory frameworks and regional implementation.implementation.
Who should attend?
- Municipal and regional planners involved in emergency preparedness and urban development.
- Architects, real-estate developers and property owners exploring sustainable, "nature-positive" building strategies.
- Technology providers and entrepreneurs within the agritech, horticulture and circular economy.
- Civil servants, sustainability officers and citizens dedicated to strengthening the regional food value chain.
Facilitators
- The workshop is facilitated by TEAL, a non-profit innovation company with a multidisciplinary team that takes ideas from concept through to commercialisation, with specialist expertise in local food, aquaculture, agriculture and tourism. Analytical support is provided by UK Urban AgriTech (UKUAT).
