Dream factory against immoderation //Dominique Ramrath

 

A new infrastructure against a dissociation in the accessability of food and for a fair use of food surplus

Everyone knows that our eating habits and global changes are closely linked. In some cases, we use food in an alarmingly unbalanced way. One third of the food harvested and produced for human consumption worldwide ends up in the garbage, estimates for the industrialized countries are as high as half.

In many respects, it is becoming clear that there is a current cause for a food change. This is expressed above all in inadequate food supply for the needy, huge quantities of food surpluses and a barely existing food education. Another reason for a change is the emerging desire for localization and regionalization as an alternative to globalization. Spatial and temporal references are completely ignored in individual consumption, resulting in a placeless and spaceless perception of the food system.

In the context of this work the attention is put on the last sections of the value chain, since here the largest improvement potential is assumed with the help of an architectural approach within a city. The exemplary examination of Cologne as a large city with a conceivably wide range of local supply and food education services shows that there are various spatial planning and architectural needs. Although the city is broadly positioned with organizations such as the food policy council, the Cologne Food Bank, The Good Food and Foodsharing with regard to current questions and answers, specific spatial gaps emerge from the mapping, expert interviews and excursions.

The design proposal is intended to use a new multifunctional infrastructure to fill these gaps and be complementary to existing organizations. This approach is less about fighting the causes of emerging food surpluses and social exclusion, but rather about making visible and intervening in the current state. It aims to defuse processes of exclusion by avoiding independent worlds of consumption and providing equal access. Since the design is a mesh of new building types and micro-locations, two of these types and the street furniture for the micro-locations to be integrated in the Cologne district of Kalk were designed here as examples.

Contact info graduate: ramrathdominique@gmail.com