Guidelines for climate-friendly food choices developed by the Swedish authorities recommend citizens to reduce their meat and rice consumption as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The first of their kind, the guidelines are now being sent out for reactions and inspiration from other EU countries.
See report on impacts of meat and dairy at:
http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=1721
Thursday, February 25, 2010
What Do Designers Like Us Have to Offer the Local Food Initiatives?
What Do Designers Like Us Have to Offer the Local Food Initiatives?
Nov 12, 2009 20:57PM
Craig Applegath
As the Grand Prize winners of the recent ResilientCity.org Design Ideas Competition, we were asked to contribute a blog posting that expanded upon or further developed some of the ideas that we explored in our competition entry.
To do so, we thought that we would reflect on what we learned from our presentation of our competition entry “From the Ground Up”, at a benefit for a youth farming program. Our co-presenters included other Brooklyn residents involved in local food initiatives. The event gave us the chance to consider what urban designers can offer people who are already making viable agriculture projects happen in our city. We saw three basic possible contributions a proposal like ours can make.
1. From Urban Agriculture to Food Systems
Designers can help by creating a framework for urban agriculture at scales bigger than individual project sites. Urban agriculture systems include food production, processing, distribution, and consumption as well as waste management. Individuals involved in urban food initiatives necessarily tend to understand and manage small parts of this process as they relate to operations. Urban planners and designers have the opportunity to consider the system as a whole – how resources flow from one process to the next, and how to match that flow with local needs. Our proposal imagined how neighborhood spaces could systematically welcome various food programs.
2. Putting Food Systems into Design Language
Designers can use the tools of architecture and planning to advocate for urban food systems to decision makers. This is a service designers offer every day to clients of other sorts. We were surprised to find very few official planning or design documents addressing neighborhood food systems comprehensively. Design language is a common and persuasive vocabulary used to communicate ideas about systemic change – to agency officials, funders, community developers, and the public. We expect and believe design language should become a well-deployed tool in the development of urban food systems.
3. Connecting Food with Neighborhood Systems
Leveraging an understanding of local concerns and infrastructure, designers can connect urban agriculture to other neighborhood systems. How can urban agriculture be a part of energy generation, waste management, transportation, or job creation? Our proposal suggested, for example, how food production could improve the public realm. Crime and safety are major concerns in Newark and affect perceptions of the city. We think by activating neighborhood spaces and buildings with food initiatives, we can create a safer network of active public spaces. The more connections established between food systems and local infrastructures and institutions, the more resilient urban agriculture will become. The capacity of food systems to withstand changes – including displacement by higher value land uses – will grow.
A visit to Brick City Urban Farm in Newark gave inspiration to our proposal. The farm is located on a 15,000 square-foot vacant lot on loan from a non-profit affordable housing developer. Two residents of Integrity House, a nearby rehabilitation center, are paid to maintain the farm daily. Neighborhood residents drop by to pick fresh vegetables – collards are most popular – and the farm supplies several suburban restaurants. The farm is surrounded by a simple chain-link fence, and nothing has ever been stolen.
Brick City Urban Farm is unplanned from a design perspective, but even so, the farm has improved the neighborhood public realm, responded to community needs, and connected the neighborhood to the regional economy. As designers and planners, we can help give form to these kinds of activities, and assist their organizers by strategically aligning them with neighborhood and city-scale development.
Michael Haggerty and Raj Kottamasu
Nov 12, 2009 20:57PM
Craig Applegath
As the Grand Prize winners of the recent ResilientCity.org Design Ideas Competition, we were asked to contribute a blog posting that expanded upon or further developed some of the ideas that we explored in our competition entry.
To do so, we thought that we would reflect on what we learned from our presentation of our competition entry “From the Ground Up”, at a benefit for a youth farming program. Our co-presenters included other Brooklyn residents involved in local food initiatives. The event gave us the chance to consider what urban designers can offer people who are already making viable agriculture projects happen in our city. We saw three basic possible contributions a proposal like ours can make.
1. From Urban Agriculture to Food Systems
Designers can help by creating a framework for urban agriculture at scales bigger than individual project sites. Urban agriculture systems include food production, processing, distribution, and consumption as well as waste management. Individuals involved in urban food initiatives necessarily tend to understand and manage small parts of this process as they relate to operations. Urban planners and designers have the opportunity to consider the system as a whole – how resources flow from one process to the next, and how to match that flow with local needs. Our proposal imagined how neighborhood spaces could systematically welcome various food programs.
2. Putting Food Systems into Design Language
Designers can use the tools of architecture and planning to advocate for urban food systems to decision makers. This is a service designers offer every day to clients of other sorts. We were surprised to find very few official planning or design documents addressing neighborhood food systems comprehensively. Design language is a common and persuasive vocabulary used to communicate ideas about systemic change – to agency officials, funders, community developers, and the public. We expect and believe design language should become a well-deployed tool in the development of urban food systems.
3. Connecting Food with Neighborhood Systems
Leveraging an understanding of local concerns and infrastructure, designers can connect urban agriculture to other neighborhood systems. How can urban agriculture be a part of energy generation, waste management, transportation, or job creation? Our proposal suggested, for example, how food production could improve the public realm. Crime and safety are major concerns in Newark and affect perceptions of the city. We think by activating neighborhood spaces and buildings with food initiatives, we can create a safer network of active public spaces. The more connections established between food systems and local infrastructures and institutions, the more resilient urban agriculture will become. The capacity of food systems to withstand changes – including displacement by higher value land uses – will grow.
A visit to Brick City Urban Farm in Newark gave inspiration to our proposal. The farm is located on a 15,000 square-foot vacant lot on loan from a non-profit affordable housing developer. Two residents of Integrity House, a nearby rehabilitation center, are paid to maintain the farm daily. Neighborhood residents drop by to pick fresh vegetables – collards are most popular – and the farm supplies several suburban restaurants. The farm is surrounded by a simple chain-link fence, and nothing has ever been stolen.
Brick City Urban Farm is unplanned from a design perspective, but even so, the farm has improved the neighborhood public realm, responded to community needs, and connected the neighborhood to the regional economy. As designers and planners, we can help give form to these kinds of activities, and assist their organizers by strategically aligning them with neighborhood and city-scale development.
Michael Haggerty and Raj Kottamasu
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Foodprint NYC is the first in a series of international conversations about food and the city. From a cluster analysis of bodega inventories to the cultural impact of the ice-box, and from food deserts to peak phosphorus, panelists will examine the hidden corsetry that gives shape to urban foodscapes, and collaboratively speculate on how to feed New York in the future. The free afternoon program will include designers, policy-makers, flavor scientists, culinary historians, food retailers, and others, for a wide-ranging discussion of New York’s food systems, past and present, as well as opportunities to transform our edible landscape through technology, architecture, legislation, and education.
Date: Saturday, February 27
Time: 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Location: Studio-X (180 Varick St., Suite 1610, New York, NY 10014)
Free and open to the public
Program Schedule:
Zoning Diet: Sean Basinski, Joel Berg, Nevin Cohen, Stanley Fleishman
Culinary Cartography: Jonathan Bogarín, Makalé Faber Cullen, David Haskell, Naa Oyo A. Kwate
Edible Archaeology: Rebecca Federman, William Grimes, Annie Hauck-Lawson, David Sax
Feast, Famine, and Other Scenarios: Amale Andraos, Marcelo Coelho, Natalie Jeremijenko, Beverly Tepper
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
The fun theory
rolighetsteorin.se
The deepest bin in the world http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbEKAwCoCKw
Piano stairs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw&feature=related
The deepest bin in the world http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbEKAwCoCKw
Piano stairs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw&feature=related
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)