FERN What it is: Fremantle Environmental Resource Network (FERN) is a non for profit organisation run by volunteers and an elected board. FERN is a community organisation dedicated to providing affordable bi-weekly vegan food options to the community and offering a community space for people to create community. Vegan buffet dinner by donation are offered […]
Foodbank What it is: Foodbank–Established in 2010 by New Taipei-based Chinese Christian Relief Association (CCRA), 1919 is one of the biggest organizations of its kind in Taiwan. It supplies food to nearly 200 churches working to support about 4,500 disadvantaged youths. The food bank has also negotiated daily donation agreements between 54 of the churches […]
What it is: The project intends to create architecture to connect children with their surrounding natural environment and to reflect perspectives from their world. Most of the kindergarten is designed at children’s scale so every spaces except for the classroom can only be used by children. Where it is:  Countryside of Shandong, China  Why it is […]
What it is:  While exploring Taipeh Matea came across this Urban Garden near the Taipei 101 building.  The day later Anna and I went there and asked the 3 gardeners who were there a couple of questions. They explained to us that the garden is funded by the city and everybody who wants to plant […]
What it is:  Two weeks ago I visited the VHS-Biogarten Turner Hof in Cologne and talked to one of their oldest member Birgit Scherer. She has been a member for over 25 years and shared her knowledge about gardening in the Cologne area, Permaculture and community based gardening with me.  The VHS-Biogarten has it’s on compost […]
What it is: an environmental friendly way of transportation by using air pressure and magnetic power Where it is: Pneumatic system: used in bigger companies, hyperloop: still does not exist Why it is relevant:´The system of pneumatic transportation is more than 100 years old, but due to the digitalization and new technologies, it is offering a new […]
What it is: An environmental friendly option to keep food and beverages cold by placing the fridge under the ground. Where it is: Can be placed in almost every ground structure (sand, soil …) Why it is relevant: The hundreds of years old concept of an underground fridge is celebrating its revival!  A dutch designer developed a spherical […]
What is it: A shared kitchen run by a young couple that tries to connect (mainly young ) people as a community and teach how to cook. As you have to book for your events/activities and pay quiete a high price for your time it seems approachable only for mid/high class income groups. Their clean […]
Food – Where does it come from? I focused on specific food items by identifying the production and original source of the food. For example, Taiwan’s largest farmed vegetables, grains and fruits, such as pineapple, rice, cocoa, tea and sugar cane. I reached out to a few farms, some which I was not able to […]
WHAT IT IS a public fridge where 26 year old farmers sell their bananas on a trustbased concept. WHERE IT IS Hualien, Taiwan  WHY IT IS RELEVANT the public fridge is a nice example to leave out the middle man.  a group of 26 year old farmers installed a public fridge, where people can grab […]

Food is increasingly getting on the agenda of design and designers. And there is need for new approaches!

In this international project, we will research and analyse structures and processes related to food production, distribution and consumption in (future) cities (Cologne/Taipei).

We will develop possibilities of future approaches, especially in the context of increasing digitization (AI, IoT, blockchain, traceability, bait to plate, farm to fork) – and question them critically.

  • How can we design a different relation to food, its ingredients and values, its production and culture, its habits and processes?
  • How can we create new relations and values to ingredients of food?
  • How can we connect (us to) different stakeholders, especially to build relations between farmer/producer and consumer.

A part of the project team – max. 6 students – will be able to work in Taipei for a week in November, supported by students from SCID Taipei and the project group in Cologne. Details will be clarified in the first project meeting.

In Cologne, we work together with local experts and stakeholders.

At the end of the semester, both the analysis and drafts / prototypes will be presented.

In the project we refer to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in particular to SDG 11 and 12. Due to the topic, it might be possible to submit the results to the Cumulus Green Award (and I will encourage and support you to do so).

We will approach the project by questions we want to explore. In the beginning, we will have the opportunity to find a huge variety of questions and then discuss them – amongst us and with others . in order to find out the most relevant ones. Relevant in terms of the need to approach them and relevant to approach them from the perspective of design.

Pre-meeting: if you have questions or want to make sure that you are really in the project – or want to influence the character of the project even before it started please try to join our pre-meeting on Thursday September 26 at 12.30

First official meeting: This is mandatory for all that want to join – it will be on Tuesday October 22 at 10.00. In this meeting I want to see what your specific interest in this project is – so please subscribe to this space, contribute with some relevant questions and maybe cases as well…

Regular meetings: The regular meetings are always on Tuesday at 10.00. As I mentioned due to some travel activities we won’t meet every Tuesday, but there will be weeks where we meet twice or longer during the Tuesday meeting. There is a GoogleDoc with all our meetings (always updated). If you are not available we can arrange to connect via zoom – but always let me know before. 

Taiwan trip: the workshop in Taiwan is scheduled for November 18-23. The core group not traveling to Taipei will proceed meeting here and we will remotely collaborate via our KISDspace and zoom (see above).

We can learn a lot from existing cases and studies. Here we are collecting relevant cases how digitalisation  influences and affects food farming, production, distribution and consumption. How farmers/producers are connected to consumers, the rural to the urban.

Cases are structured around 3 core questions: What it is, Where it is and Why it is relevant. In addition, cases have tags / keywords to made them more accessible and findable. It would be great to use the comment function about the use of cases to create additional information

Here we will collect interesting experts: individuals, organisations or initiatives who are doing something we consider valuable in the context of the project. They can be (preferrably) from the area Cologne or Taipei with the purpose to meet them for an interview, invite them for a talk or a workshop, or to go for a visit or a field trip.

This is the page where we share our digital communication – in this case video messages between Cologne and Taipei to figure out what’s the best way to keep in touch. And for live connections please use https://zoom.us/j/5505005500

No query required.