In the framework of the Creative Food Cycles project– European project aiming to enhancing innovative and creative practices between food, design and architecture to create more conviviality in food cycles from a transnational perspective – the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC, Barcelona – España), the Chair of Regional Building and Urban Planning (LUH, Hannover – Germany) and the Department of Architecture and Design (UNIGE _ DAD, Genova – Italia) edited the Food Interactions Catalogue. Divided in three different sections, this publication is a concrete collection of best practices regarding food as an urban element possibly creating new conviviality and transforming cities by scaling up food cycles to real models of co-design.
Creative Food Cycles is a European Project aiming at developing a new approach of food cycles and their role within societies. Considering food as an urban element has generated the creation of new devices and rituals in urban food production, distribution and consumption. This project therefore offers an open and inclusive approach that merges new ways of design and digital interaction in a transdisciplinary way, exploring cultural, social, and economic innovations accelerated through the activities.
As this change of paradigm about food as urban element has entailed major innovations and changes in terms of food culture and economy, a collection of more than 30 creative are targeting the following challenges:
- How to create new conviviality through FOOD CYCLES?
- How to scale-up FOOD CYCLES as models of co-design?
- How to enhance the transformation of cities through FOOD CYCLES?
Divided in three sections, the Food Interactions Catalogue is divided into three sections, each one developed by one CFC partner. Each section corresponds to one phase of the food cycles.
First section: the production to distribution phase, by IAAC.
The Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) was in charge of developing the section dealing with the food production to distribution phase. Following various sanitary scandals, a will for more transparency and accountability within the food supply chain has arisen. The increasing demand for food-security, safety and advanced practices in urban zones has brought IAAC to provide the reader with concrete examples of projects working at a crossroad between digital technologies, biotechnologies and ICT solutions and how to combine them with responsive food production.
Second section: the distribution to consumption phase, by LUH
In this section, LUH tackles the issue of future territorial and societal challenges necessary to the development of resilient food systems. This section explores new distribution, marketing, processing and consumption models to foster access to regional supply chains and sustainable food sheds.
Third section: the consumption to disposition phase, by UNIGE
In this section, UNIGE explores the wide range of opportunities, experimentations and new aesthetic dimensions offered by food waste and introduces the reader to alternative and creative ways to recycle and reuse food to prototype new compostable materials, ecological products and social processes by promoting sustainable, user-centric design and a circular economic model.
Each project is read according to different indicators referring to three types of classification: Typological Categories, Readiness Categories and Performance Categories. This publication aims at guiding the reader consider food and its creative, expressive capacity. Indeed, food is a cultural indicator, a source of identification, innovation and social integration.
Discover the catalogue available as Open-access Digital publication with ISBN, giving access to social media, webpages, online videos and interactive resources to increase the framework of information.
