Congratulations, Ana-Luz and Clara for finally submitting your work at the Cumulus Green competition. Interesting for all to see the submission(s)! From my perspective, the requirements helped you to get a clearer profile for your project – good luck with it and keen to see more next week!
What it is: Yatai Cart is a response in order to upcycle an unused space between buildings in Fukuoka, “Notes Architects” created a low-cost stand that enables a local coffee shop to be open on weekdays. The do-it-yourself design and low manufacturing cost are the basic principles that insipired the project, consisting of 17 panels made […]
What it is: La Peruana Coffee is a Pulpaking project that contributes to the sensitive environmental problem in Lima with the development of 100% biodegradable and compostable containers (20 x 25 cm), made from kitchen and agricultural waste (such as rice straw, sugar cane, plantation pseudostem and pineapple leaf) or scrap material resistant to water […]
What it is: PermaFungi is a social cooperative based on urban agriculture participatory actions combined with circular economy principles. It’s main goal is to recycle urban organic waste mixed with coffee grounds to grow oyster mushrooms and to produce compost. Additionally, PermaFungi offers various kits to grow mushrooms at home as well as educational workshops regarding […]
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What it is: Very well written article or food report, answering commonly asked questions about climate change and food Where it is: Worldwide Why it is relevant: The article answers many questions an individual might have regarding the climate change and food issue, especially regarding the way they intertwine with each other. Exact stats and […]
What it is: Extended nutrition labeling: Nutri-Score, a simplified, expanded nutrition label system on the front of the food packaging. With the Nutri-Score, a five-point scale from A to E shows the overall score for the nutritional value of a product. For this purpose, the number of calories and nutritionally favorable and unfavorable nutrients are […]
What it is: Copper Branch plant-based power food, a restaurant focusing on plant-based foods. Where it is: US, Canda, France Why it is relevant: Plant-based diets offer all the necessary protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals for optimal health, and are often higher in fiber and phytonutrients. More and more people in North America are […]
What it is: Buy when you want and what you want: fruits and vegetables, cheese, meat, bread, drinks and much more … An app with a flexible option to buy with no membership fee or minimum order value.  Where it is: Europe Why is relevant: The community of farmers could sell their products in fair prices […]

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

What it is:  I visited three different food forests in Hsinchu before flying back. The city is located in the South-West of Taipei, close to the airport and not far from the sea. Its name “Hsin-chu” means “new-bamboo”, it used to be the land of many bamboo species. The city is one of the most […]
What it is:  In the outskirts of Hualien, close to the mountains, we went to knock on the door of an independant couple of farmers, growing organically since 1993 in a region where everyone around them uses pesticides. They are 80% self-sufficient with their harvest but they don’t produce enough to really make a living […]
What it is:  We came across few small urban farms/community gardens in Taipei or in Hualien. Every time, we tried to interact with the people gardening there. It was hard to understand the system precisely but in both cases, the people there (collecting Papayas, watering or maintaining) were volunteers (usually quite old) that were also […]
What it is : I met three members of this collective during the workshop in Taipei. They had gathered in an abandoned house – rehabilitated into a restaurant by Taiwanese architects – to bake cookies and tempeh (an Indonesian fermented dish) with okara (the residues of Soy milk production, incredibly popular in Taipei and sold […]
What it is:  Pierre Loisel, a 70 year-old farmer from Quebec, living in Taiwan for more than 50 years that tells people everywhere they should eat healthy produce grown with kitchen scraps. He originated the collection system of organic waste of Taipei city twenty years ago. He created a compost system for the city and […]
Dear Workshop participants In order for the valuable materials which were produced during the workshop not to get lost, I have created this drive folder in which you can upload your presentation, interesting research, visuals and documents.  This way, we can retrieve your input at a later stage in the continuing project in Cologne. Thank you!!
Here I am sharing the criteria for the Taipei workshop -. and of course they are related to our work here. So please have them in mind as criteria for your individual project topics to work on. CRITERIA (Future) speculations about food and the city will lead to countless opportunities. In order to narrow down […]
I can highly recommend to listen (sorry, German only) to the following DLF podcasts / programs: Digitalisierung der Landwirtschaft Die Nahrung der Zukunft aus der Stadt Bits und Bytes für Kleinbauern (about farmers and digitalisation in Africa, see also the website of CTA) For sure the Global Food Summit (mentioned quite often) is a valuable […]
Hi everyone! Today during the meeting, we discussed how it would be useful to get the research we have done so far on physical cards. This is a way for us to get an overview of the collected cases and it could be especially of value for the workshop-participants in Taipei to flick through those […]