CNY FoodCenter - Constructing Foodography - With Caitlyn PontrellaThis comprehensive design studio addressed multiple issues: from what comprehensive design entails, to issues of disciplinarity and the status of the local food system.Siting the Project: Collaboration + Community EngagementThe site for the project is adjacent to the existing CNY Regional Market; Located in North Syracuse, on the edge of the oldest part of the city, the site bridges between residential fabric and the open industrial sites at the edge of the city. Primary site access would be achieved through a combination of automobile (current), re-routed bus routes, and pedestrians from the neighborhoods to the southeast. Strategies to encourage public transportation use included a market-specific bus from the downtown hub and University campus, and the re-routing of several existing routes to simplify market access. Working in pairs, we met and worked with students in the SUNY ESF Landscape Architecture Program and Industrial and Interaction Designers in the VPA Design School, and with stakeholders from the community, including farmers, nutritionists, the director of the Regional Market, and other parties interested in the Central New York Food System. The result of these meetings were conversations and structured brainstorming sessions on how to best address, spatialize, and design, in relationship to the 5 stages of the Food System: Production, Processing, Distribution, Consumption, and Waste.Programming / StrategyIdentity - how to create an identity for food, which through its umbiquity has become lost in our daily lives; how to create a unique space for food which acts to re-embed food systems into daily life.Access - To food in the city itself - as a result of food deserts, lack of transportation, time constraints, or due to there being no ?space? for foodEducation - general education on the food system, from production (farming, gardening, and agriculture) to the global distribution and processing networks, to the way in which food is consumed (preparation, cooking, recipes, nutrition), and finally the outcome of wasted food.Advocacy - The lack of a unifying or at least linking body for policy action relating to food systems - which could promote cooperation and collaboration between various members and communities in the CNY region.(Note: While the design was a 2-person collaboration, all images shown here were produced by me)
View Original