CONVIVIUM
Food Systems at the Limit

Description

Convivium: Food Systems at the Limit invites readers on a journey through the intricate networks that feed the world. Exploring how food production shapes landscapes, cities, and everyday life, the book uncovers the architecture of our global food systems. From greenhouses and fishing ports to farms and feed-crop fields, it shows how architecture and territory respond to the pressures of global food production and consumption. 

Through a rich interplay of essays, photography, and research, Convivium highlights the environmental, political, and social challenges that define what and how we eat. It asks pressing questions that link ecology and culture, science and design: How do tomatoes connect to salmon? How do barns shape animal lives? And how does soy from Brazil end up feeding livestock in Europe?  

Twelve thematic fields structure the book. Contributions on tomatoes, strawberries, salmon, tropical fruit, cows, bulls, octopuses, carp, shrimp, soy, grain, and worms reveal a complex web of trade routes, technologies, and labor relations. Different perspectives demonstrate how food production is linked to climate change, migration, and the transformation of rural and urban spaces. By following these stories, Convivium exposes the hidden infrastructures, economic systems, and spatial consequences of industrial agriculture and global supply chains. 

This volume brings together architecture, science, politics, and economics to offer fresh perspectives on how we produce, move, and consume food. Richly illustrated, it combines analytical insight with visual storytelling. It invites readers to rethink the systems behind everyday meals—to see how food shapes the world we inhabit and to imagine more sustainable and equitable ways of living together. 

With contributions by Grace Abou Jaoude, Betina Albrecht, Maximilian Atta, Andjelka Badnjar, Sepp Braun, Giulia Bruno, Jean-Marc Caimi, Niklas Fanelsa, Neal Haddaway, Nikolai Huber, Nicole Humiński, Diego Inglez de Souza, Natalie Judkowsky, Nikos Katsikis, Kees de Klein, Andres Lepik, María D. López Rodríguez, Jan Müller, Víctor Muñoz Sanz, Sofia Nannini, Raj Patel, Valentina Piccinni, Stefan Pielmeier, Olga Pindyuk, Réka Rozsnyói, Tiago Saraiva, Katrin Schneider, Johannes Schwartz, Gent Shehu, Rafael Sousa Santos, Carolyn Steel, Amelie Steffen, Sinan von Stietencron, Dániel Szalai, André Tavares, Mark Titley, Öykü Tok, and José Luis Vicente Vicente.

The exhibition CONVIVIUM – FOOD SYSTEMS AT THE LIMIT will be on view from 23 April to 18 October 2026 at the Architekturmuseum der TUM in Munich!