It was a pleasure to meet all of you, I am already looking forward to swapping stories over food! This post is to shortly recap Thursday’s meeting and communicate to the ones who were not there.

Besides what can be found in the project description, “we will research and analyse structures and processes related to food production, distribution and consumption”, prof. Heidkamp gave an introduction and breakdown of the different elements to be taken into the project.

FUTURE | CITIES | FOOD
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DIGITIZATION | SUSTAINABILITY

FUTURE?

Futures? The future? What could design bring to the (future) table? Considering the role of the ‘Gestalter’ (such a good German word…), designers too can anticipate and speculate by developing narratives and building scenarios. Besides being a powerful storytelling tool, materialising these possible future scenarios can enhance the imaginative potential of any actor involved and bring it a step closer to becoming a reality. Those future approaches by designers allow creative freedom and offer many possibilities through different mediums.

French Sci-fi Team https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49044892
The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2g4uHsN5DU and of course the book itself, worth reading!

CITIES?

KISD is situated in the city of Cologne, which is the biggest in the state North Rhine Westphalia, one of Europe’s major metropolitan areas. With 1 million inhabitants and a population density of 2700 people per km2, the urban context of Cologne is at odds with our second city of interest, Taipei. When considering the Greater Taipei Area, situated in the north of the island of Taiwan, it has a population of 7 million people and a much higher population density.

What are the relations between the city and its surroundings? How do the bigger mechanisms in each of these places work? How can those different urban environments inform our design process? … For cities, we will also look at the interdependencies with their close peripheries, rural environments. This is where food takes its route in many cases.

FOOD?

As we have felt already yesterday, food matters to us all! Within this project, we will be using a variety of lenses on the topic but going beyond the material exploration and take not only the human, or specific touchpoint perspective, but also the systems perspective.
What are the cultural dimensions of food in each of the urban environments? How does the restaurant and hospitality industry in cities influence food consumption? … We brought up many points in the following discussion: Digital Technology, Traceability, Blockchain, Restaurants and Food Design, Health and special requirements / needs, Farming in the peri-urban surroundings of cities, Waste Conversion and Food By-products (not in terms of materiality, but in terms of data, information and processes) etc.

Looking at the study of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on „CITIES AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY FOR FOOD“ is highly recommended, more sources will follow!

DIGITIZATION + SUSTAINABILITY?

Technology and digitization allow us to enhance and facilitate processes, but also increase transparency and empower individuals involved in the food context. Looking at the way from „farm to fork“ and also at smaller farms, not only at the food industry. As a first guiding element, the increasing digitization can help us ask the appropriate questions and evaluate possibilities.

Finally, in 2019, it is unthinkable to detach sustainability from any design question – especially from food. As a final overarching umbrella, sustainability is a dimension which should be integrated in any design practice! As said before, within this project the UN Sustainable Development Goals (and other sustainability frameworks) will be referenced.

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So far the introduction (but not yet the Kick-Off!). Further, to keep track of the variety of research, we will organise the spaces once we have clustered our questions and developed areas of interest.

But for now, besides the “cases” space, there is now an “experts” space in which we can all add interesting individuals, organisations or initiatives who are doing something we consider valuable in the context of the project. They can be from area Cologne or Taipei (or anywhere else) with the purpose to invite them for a talk or a workshop, or to go for a visit or a field trip. This will be especially important during the beginning of the project so we can contact and invite the possible guest timely.

Lastly, we have decided to come together on the 15th of October at 10:00 in Room 303 where we will discuss the questions you will bring to the table, organise the room and decide how we will use the foodlab!?

Have a good weekend!