Production Landscapes: “Grow Your Own”
We have a myriad of environmental challenges facing us, and especially concerning food production and its relationship to the city. If we start to see food as a language and as a form of communication, could this be an initial step towards creating resilient cities?
Our food systems are shaped by culture, climate, geography, our human interactions. Food is thus a measure of sustainability, quality of life, the state of the ecosystem and cultural identity. FoAM Brussels and FoAM Nordica came together with students from the Landscape Architecture Department at Alnarp, the Swedish University Of Agricultural Sciences, for five hours to brainstorm, investigate and look at different creative methodologies for strengthening our relationship with what we eat and how we grow food in cities.
The aim of the workshop was: [1] to develop a food mandala inspired by permaculture plant guilds – a mapping of the seasons to communicate to a wider urban audience what we can grow and when, and [2] to develop a series of do-it-yourself (DIY) indoor farming prototypes.
Through hands-on suggestions and creative alternatives, we explored our relationship with the way food arrives on our plates daily. We wanted not only to make the concept accessible, desirable, fun, educative, and worthwhile to bring into our daily lives, but also to gain an understanding of current and future challenges relating to how we feed our cities.
Workshop leaders: Anna Maria Orru, Johan Zetterquist (FoAM Nordica) and Lina Kusaite (FoAM, Brussels)
Related links:
- http://libarynth.org/production_landscapes
- www.landskapsarkitekturdagen.se/?p=28
- www.annamariaorru.com
- www.campusalnarp.se/
- Images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157626377573941/
