Addressing Food Systems Challenges from the viewpoint of design
From April onwards a group of 110 Master students of the Design Academy Eindhoven will research, reflect, question, and speculate on the objectives of SDG 2: Zero Hunger. The international group of students is composed of more than 40 nationalities and a wide variety of cultural backgrounds familiar with diverse local realities on different continents. They also represent different positions within the school's design practices, guaranteeing a more transdisciplinary approach. The projects will investigate themes related to economic diversity, hunger definitions and scales, communication on hunger, while also offering outlooks on new agricultural futures, looking at the role of the body, its metabolisms and nutritional value.
Provided with a substantive briefing and exchange, students are challenged to the dilemma’s and developments of the SDG2, expose them in an original and critical way offering new perspectives: from the economic system of agricultural subsidies and complex production chains, to issues related to scale, possible social or landscape consequences of growth, the possibilities and impossibilities of technology, making new overviews of food products or handbooks, increasing consumer awareness on food, waste or obesity and potentially sketching future products and scenarios.
Kick-off with Rem Koolhaas
The project kicked off with an inspirational speech by Rem Koolhaas about his research into the countryside and his ? Essay. Koolhaas sketched different realities and new contours of the countryside around the world and emphasised that it’s crucial to put an effort in understanding other contexts and finding out what is happening elsewhere in order to reinforce or accelerate what has potential.
As an echo to the Countryside: The Future exhibition by Rem Koolhaas / AMO which was on show at the S.R. Guggenheim Museum in NY in 2020, a selection of the design projects will be further developed into (online) interventions for the UN Food System Summit.