Food and the City makes the relationships between food and the city visible by exploring both the ways in which buying and eating food have become such a significant part of urban public life, and the ways in which design supports and enhances the place of food in the city. It is timely because the proliferation of urban cafes, restaurants, and markets continues, but is not sufficiently recognized or analyzed. Food related topics are now of great interest in academic and design disciplines but the theme of this issue, food as it relates to the variety and vitality of urban life, has not been addressed. Food and the City, will develop ideas from the popular Food and Architecture (2002). 

Contents include: Raw, Medium, Well Done: A Typological Reading of Australian Cafes by Jane Lawrence & Rachel Hurst; Blurring Boundaries, Defining Place: The New Hybrid Space of Dining by Gail Satler; The New and the Rare: Gourmet Food in the Japanese Department Store by Masaaki Takahashi; Tasting the Periphery: Bangkok’s Agri and Aqua-cultural Fringe by Brian McGrath & Danai Thaitakoo; “Big Sign” Dining in Hong Kong: The City as Dining Room by Jeffrey W. Cody and Mary C. Day; Taste, Sound and Smell:  On the Street in Chinatown and Little Italy by Nisha Fernando; What’s Eating Manchester? Gastro-culture and Urban Regeneration David Bell & Jon Binnie; Designing the Gastronomic Quarter by Susan Parham

Karen Franck is an environmental psychologist who teaches architecture and social science courses at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. She is a frequent contributor to AD and the editor of the Food and Architecture issue (December 2002).