London à la Carte Part 1 Project 2024 Forrest Xie Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) | UK The current food system within the UK is severely broken. Since the middle of the 17th century, Britain has been at the forefront of attempts to increase efficiency in its agrarian workforce, firstly during the British Agricultural Revolution, which subsequently led to the First Industrial Revolution. Although this shift in production methods and processes led to a drop in labour costs and resulted in affordability for the end-consumer, the costs of producing food were transferred from monetary to environmental. As Carolyn Steel has observed, “there is no such thing as cheap food.”Thus, in this design research project a new link between rural and urban, or rather, a re-interpreted form of the centuries-old practice of nomadic pastoralism and commoning is identified and explored on an urban scale within the context of London. This investigation discusses how a new model of urban transhumance can act as an educational link between consumption and production, unlock unused land within a dense metropolis, and feed those who need it most. The complexity and extent of how the food system has failed requires an even more complex response or proposal to reimagine how we feed ourselves today in a city like London. Tutor(s) Professor Murray Fraser Michiko Sumi