Logistical Urbanism:

The Space of Food

“Globalization has made possible that the urban landscapes born from food’s flows take a superficial-
similar shape everywhere: from the rural areas to the city center or from food terminals to big food markets,
cartographies leave similar traces behind”

“Over the last century, food delivery systems in large urban centers, although largely overlooked by planners,
economists, and politicians, have undergone a critical transformation towards keeping the retail giants from
gaining complete control of the food supply system.”

Nina Marie Lister, Food

“For all their mess, noise and nuisance, markets bring something vital to a city: an awareness of what it takes to
sustain life... Markets are contradictory spaces, but that is the point. They are spaces made by food.”

Carolynn Steel, Hungry City: How food Shapes our Lives

spaces of a modern food system
spaces of a modern food system
evolution and scales of food systems

1-node
producer as consumer
hunter-gatherer

2-nodes
farm-to-table
informal food trade
community supported agriculture

3-nodes
farmer-to-market-to-table
village type

infinite-nodes
regional/global
modern food system
PRODUCE

A decline in non-for-profit for public benefit wholesale food distribution centers

An increase in private corporation food distribution centers
regional/national/global food sheds

urban america

truck
volumes
betwenn
zones

agricultural america
case study by pierre belanger: ontario terminal market
wholesale food distribution centers

central market rungis hunts point food distribution center tsukiji

mexico city, mexico paris, france mexico city, mexico tokyo, japan
327 hectare site 232 hectare site 24 hectare site 9 hectare site

ontario terminal market philadelphia regional wholesale market new covent garden market carrier dome
toronto, ontario philadelphia, pennsylvania london, united kingdom syracuse, new york
6.7 hectare site 6.3 hectare site 6 hectare site 7 hectare site
new york city: hunts point food distribution center