Tithi Sanyal

The landscape of food systems in deindustrializing metropolises: Designing locally integrated circular food systems

In an increasingly urbanized and interconnected world, with a migrating and fluctuating urban population emerging alongside the threat of climate change, health emergencies, and socio-political unrest, the demands for research on innovative urban policy and design to provide food self-reliance in cities are growing. Food insecurity in deindustrializing cities is a complex yet fairly common problem. The current pandemic has only exacerbated the lack of universal access to food. Issues such as global food price inflation, reduced household purchasing power, and cases of chronic hunger have necessitated the development of sustainable local food systems that effectively integrate within urban settings. These issues have arisen out of over-reliance on a neoliberal food system, disruption of food supply from regional or global crises such as a health emergency or food embargo, lack of food traceability and safety within the system, and inequitable distribution of healthy food outlets. Developing locally integrated food systems within cities requires synergistic development of natural, social, and constructed systems emerging from a balance between local needs and surplus. In this quest for a more sustainable and socially just future, the deindustrializing metropolis offers fertile ground to prototype integrated food systems.

While Circular Economy (CE) is being adopted globally since its advocacy by policymakers in China and the European Union since the 20th century, the implication of applying CE principles in urban design and planning is understudied and requires further investigation using socio-technical processes. The thesis explores the potential of a deindustrializing city to rely on food produced within the metro region, examines how  food equity and food justice ideologies are actionable in planning, policy, and design, and defines policy and design frameworks necessary in the development of local food systems through CE models.

Tithi Sanyal is a PhD student in the Constructed Environments. She received a Masters of Architecture from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Professional Bachelors of Architecture from the NMIMS Balwant Sheth School of Architecture, Mumbai. Sanyal was previously a Research Associate at RVTR, a research-based practice at the University of Michigan.  She was undertaking design research work on sponsored projects examining the applications of complex systems theory to urban design, focused on increasing urban access and the food-energy-water nexus. Before moving to the United States, Sanyal worked at Anukruti, a non-profit organization developing community play spaces in the slums of Mumbai, and Flying Elephant Studio, an architecture studio in Bangalore.ncounter similar urban issues. Then, I continued to study at Southeast University and earned an M.Eng. in urban planning in 2020, focusing on urban history and historic preservation. I participated in domestic and international heritage preservation projects, mainly related to UNESCO, which led me to think about preservation from a global context. Then, I went to Cornell and earned an M.A. in Historic Preservation Planning in 2022, which gained me massive knowledge regarding all aspects of preservation from western frameworks. Combining previous experiences with my career interest in teaching, I decided to come to UVA to pursue a Ph.D. degree.