Food Space
Studio 5201IN and 6301IN, semester 2, 2007 weeks 1-9
"The space of food is all around us. Food-related activities occur in a great many places and shape much of the built environment, indoors and out. Even though the food practices of a particular period and culture influence the design of restaurants, cafes and markets, barns, fields and other spaces of food, they are also relatively free of spatial or physical constraints. [ . . .] we encounter examples of this each day: steps or a low wall are sites of eating and drinking, pavements and car parks are popular locations for selling food, or a rooftop may become a vegetable garden. The presence of food often generates a feeling of intimacy, sometimes just for a short time, and even before we eat: a lunch truck at the side of the road, a picnic spread out on a blanket".
Karen A Franck, “The Space of Food’, AD, vol 72, no 6, Nov/Dec 2002
Food takes up space. The production, distribution, preparation, and consumption of food takes place in a variety of spaces. From vast agricultural enterprise and global distribution networks to an intimate meal in a domestic setting or a bowl of rice in a refugee camp the space of food varies. Food is an essential item for our existence; the space of food is an inescapable part of the environment, urban and rural.
This nine-week brief asks you to think hard about food. The project will work towards the design of space for the production, distribution and/or consumption of food at a particular scale.
Food Pace:
Crit: Monday 20 August
"Stand a cake for a few minutes before removing from the tin".
Edmonds Cookery Book, 30th edition, 1991
We know that not only does food take up space it also concerns time. From the fast food industry to slow food movement the pace of food is spelt out in the economy of its distribution and marketing. Think about the following: a wedding banquet, the Japanese tea ceremony, McDonalds drive thru, fish and chips at the beach, Sunday family dinner, meeting a friend for coffee and a cigarette; all of these occasions involve the consumption of food but some involve elaborate ritual and ceremony while other involve less formal, though still regulated processes of procurement and consumption. These processes take up both space and time and involve differing aspects of intimacy and/or community.
Your brief: Document the actual pace or speed of an aspect of food production, distribution, preparation and consumption. Consider how the passage of time required in this process can be documented. Use any media. Carefully consider how the media you use allows you to articulate concepts of time.
You are to present a considered and well crafted document – after all you are designer and communication is everything. We suggest that you work iteratively – that is reflect on what you have done and work on it again.
This three week Food Pace project will be developed into a design proposition in weeks 5 – 9. Final Crits for this project will take place in week nine.
Resources
Start with what you had for breakfast. What did you eat? Where/how was it made? How was it transported? How did you get it? Why did you choose it? How was it packaged? What did it do to your body? How long did it take to eat? How do you feel now . . .? That is, as a starting place think deeply about your own relationship to food, time and space.
Books and Periodicals
Geography of Home, Akiko Busch, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1999
The Uncommon Life of Common Objects, essays on design and the everyday, Akiko Busch, Metropolis, New York, 2004
Eating architecture, Jamie Horwitz, MIT Press, 2004. (on desk copy)
Flesh: Archtiectural Probes, Diller and Scofidio, , Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1994
Food + Architecture, Karen A Franck ed., AD, vol 72, no 6, Nov/Dec 2002 (on desk copy)
Food + the City, Karen A Franck ed., AD, vol 75, no 3, May/June 2005 (on desk copy)
Granta, special issue “Food, the Vital Stuff”, Ian Jack, ed., No. 52, Winter 1995.
Culture in Action, Mary Jane Jacob ed., Bay Press, Seattle, 1995.
My Year of Meat, Ruth L. Ozeki, Viking, New York, 1998
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser, Penguin, London, 2002.
Architectural Feasts and Remnants of Colonial Construction, Sarah Treadwell, The Pander issue 6/7 March 1999
The evolution of useful things, Henry Petroski, Vintage Books, 1994.
Websites
www.thefutureoffood.com
www.fao.org
www.accidentalhedonist.com
www.chowhound.com
www.foodmuseum.typepad.com
www.americanradioworks.publicradio.org
www.foodpolitics.com
www.ltlarchitects.com
www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
Paul Callaghan, the Alan MacDiarmid professor of physical sciences at Victoria University of Wellington, will discuss food we like to eat ... too much, like fats and sugar. You can download the podcast of this interveiw and listen to it.
Show
The Food Show, Auckland, 2-5 August, 2007
Projects
Jacob + McFarlane, Pompidou Centre
Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis, Fluff Bakery, Tides Restaurant, Xing Restaurant, New York
Diller and Scofidio, Seagram Building Restaurant, New York
Diller and Scofidio, Various installation projects.
Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, The Straw House
"Indigestion" Diller + Scofidio (web site below) http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/~as0bgr/serious/art/dillerhome.htm
Artists
Sophie Calle
Chantel Ackerman (film)
Janine Antonini, Knaw and Lick and Lather
Felix Gonzalez Torres, Candy Spills
Jana Sterbeck, Meat Dress
Films
Big Night, (1996) Stanley Tucci dir.
Eat Drink Man Woman, (1994) Ang Lee, dir.
Delicatessen (1991) Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro
Tampopo (1985) Juzo Itami
The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover (1989) Peter Greenaway
Babettes gæstebud (1987) Gabriel Axel. English Translation: Babette’s Feast
Como Agua Para Chocolate (1992) Alfonso Arau. English Translation: Like Water for Chocolate
Supersize Me (2004) Morgan Spurlock
Mùi du du xanh - L'odeur de la papaye verte (1993) Anh Hung Tran. English translation: The Scent of Green Papaya
Attendance
Studio is by nature a self-directed course of study, however, the following attendance is expected:
• Students are required to meet with their tutor and group for their allotted session (see below)
• Students are required to pin up and present work at all crits.
Assessement criteria
1. Analysis 20%
Analysis involves initial evaluation of a brief for opportunities and possibilities, i.e. the generation of ideas. It includes the establishment of parameters/boundaries for operating within the brief and the subsequent management of design process within these parameters/boundaries. On-going analysis of both practical work and theoretical research ensures that concepts are developed. Analysis also ensures design process is productively shaped and appropriately focused. Analysis of personal contexts, situational contexts and cultural contexts surrounding the making and 'reading' of work (i.e. of the implications of the work) will allow for strategic exploration, synthesis and communication.
2. Exploration 20%
The investigation and development of ideas through extensive practical exploration (i.e. the making of work). The making of work is a means to both explore and articulate the motivating concepts or intentions. It is also a means to explore the mechanisms of language, visual and other.
3. Research 20%
Research is the process by which the factors influencing the development of a design are identified, explored and framed within the context of the design intent. Resulting information or material gathered is used directly or indirectly to inform subsequent design decision making. Links between research activities and subsequent work need to be evident and justifiable in a form relevant to the design activity. There should be a considered and strategic approach to practical exploration and theoretical research with the one informing the other.
4. Synthesis 20%
The bringing together of all outcomes of practical exploration, theoretical research, and analysis so that they can interact to form an overall holistic entity. This whole may be complex or simple but is variously informed and thus constitutes an enrichment of design process and outcome. Synthesis is a key component in an on-going feedback loop that helps the design process develop through generation of new ideas, new explorations, new research, new analysis and new synthesis.
5. Communication 20%
Communication explicit and implicit means of all ideas, concepts and issues addressed within a brief including all aspects of the design process. The selective and appropriate use of elements of visual language as well as (where appropriate) verbal, written or other means of communication. Communication is affected through the process of making work (i.e. making ideas manifest through process and product) as well as by means of presentation. Communication strategies should be evident and appropriate. There should be, either explicitly or implicitly, a rationale for the communication strategies used to match perception (audience's 'reading') with concept (maker's intention).
Staff + Studio Sessions
Lotte Wotherspoon: Group meets Monday 9:30-12:30, interior seminar room
Kathy Waghorn:
Group A meets Monday 9:30-12:30, second year studio space
Group B meets Tuesday 9:30-12:30, interior seminar room
Jacqui Chan: Group meets Monday 9:30-12:30, interior seminar room
These group meetings are mandatory!
Sign up times: sign up on staff office doors, sign up as pairs or individuals. Sign up meetings are not mandatory but are recommended! You can chose to have a sign up tutorial with any available staff member on these days.
Lotte, Wednesday 9:30-12:30
Kathy Thursday 9:30-12:30
