Under the title DOMESTICATED FOODSCAPES, the Superstudio explores latent perspectives and proactive approaches addressing the pressing environmental concerns of our time. Since our transition from hunters and gatherers, we have continuously modified our environment to ensure a consistent food supply.
Food, more than any other commodity, carries profound territorial and social significance. It has shaped landscapes and cities and delivered a quantity of architectural typologies rooted in the need to domesticate food. However, with the advent of industrialization, these typologies became territorially unbound, as technologies emancipated them from specific soils, locations and climates.
Today, the food system accounts for approximately 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. While evaluating these systems, the emphasis is on energy efficiency throughout the stages of production, storage, processing, trade and consumption. The spotlight has shifted from local resources to the global interconnectivity of these systems.
There's an urgent need for action. Relying solely on passive inaction or blind faith in technological progress is unlikely to steer us towards a sustainable future. We must question the role of architecture within food systems. The value of traditional territorial knowledge is as important as understanding the autonomy of industrial systems. A balanced perspective on both can create the ground for critical examination and unveil architecture's potential in todays’ sustainability discourse.
The collective exhibition ventures into the Superstudio semester. Following the development of three practical and theoretical exercises entitled cultivate, collect and distil, several experimental research are showcased as a work-in-progress exploration into the connections between food and architectural typologies.
For the winter semester of 2023, our research spotlights architectures used for the harvest and storage of food. The subsequent year will shift focus onto distribution and consumption.
HARVEST and STORAGE starts with cultivate, an experimental installation that explores the interconnection between resource, produce and care. For collect, a collection of plans and images presents a precise research and analysis of architectural structures designed for the purposes of food storage and harvesting. Finally, distil presents a critical position exploring the architectural boundaries of food domestication through the medium of a film. A collection of data and interviews offers an additional lens into historical evolution, territorial significance, produce volume and global network.