Domesticated Foodscapes

Domesticated Foodscapes is a critical investigation of food production and its territorial impact. During fall semester 2023 the EPFL-superstudio, under the direction of Professor Martin Fröhlich, investigated food types in their relation to architectural types and territorial identities to find out how we can practice a more sustainable food and building culture.

Composition of the team
The design studio was led by the following teaching team: Valentin Bansac, Maria Cunha, Prof. Martin Fröhlich, Daniela Lopes, Shehrazade Mahassini, Lara Monti, Vanessa Pointet, Clemens Waldhart.
Following by the students: Noah Ajani, Antoine Angeard, Kimberley Archimi, Juliette Auer, Michaël Aydogan, Florian Baeriswyl, Zoé Bahy, Emma Bailly-Maitre, Julie-Anna Barès, Meryl Barthe, Léo Bastianelli, Kim Bitterlin, Alexis Blais, Pauline Blanc, François Born, Thomas Brenne, Amélie Burgniard, Louis Caloz, Adrien Clairac, Eva Collier, Kevin Corazza, Zélie Cortès, Tiago Da Silva Teixeira, Frederik Dahlqvist, Myriam Daiz, Charles Darrousez, Melchior Dechancé, Emérence Declercq, Laure Dekoninck, Léa Delessert, Dimitri Descloux, Gaëtan Détraz, Joana Dias Pinto, Romain Dupertuis, Leon Economidis, Paulina Efthymiopoulos, Adam El-Hamadeh, Battsooj Enkhbaatar, Dorian Fabbro, Maria Fenoglio, Lapo Ferretti, Antoine Foehrenbacher, Romain Follonier, Daniela Galván Ortiz, Adam-Joseph Ghadi-Delgado, Kenzo Giaccari, Nikita Giaccari, Gimmi Giacuzzi, Liran Gil, Isabel-Marie Grohe, Céline Gruffel, Olivia Hagen, Rafael Halilovic, Axelle Hamm, Sébastien Hasler, Léonardo Hatoum, Eva Hauswirth, Katja Heilingbrunner, Luca Hoser, Anja Ils, Baya Imadalou, Laurent Jacoby, Alberto Johnsson, Catherine Juneau, Isabella Kaiser, Dimitri Kasparian, Vincent Kastl, Yann Kozel, Tristan Kramer, Mike Lerjen, Maéva Li, Vincent Luetto, Nathalie Marj, Romain Masoni, Ada Massarente, Arthur Masure, Simone Mauro, Serena Mazzetti, Albin Mehmeti, Inès Michelin, Ferdinand Michon, Enzo Migliano, Or Mizrahi, Julie Morel, Zhang Ng, Daria Nikolaeva, Gabriel Ogbonna, Juhee Oh, Melinda Papi, Sean Pasquier, Grégoire Pauvert, Noémie Perregaux-Dielf, Achille Pidoux, Maïlys Pierard, Julien Pignat, Daniel Pilsworth, Nicolas Pralong, Raphaël Raccio, Federico Reichel, Abigail Riand, Quentin Rickli, Pauls Rietums, Joanne Robert-Nicoud, Gabriel Saez Araya, Yassine Sam, Vanesa Santillan Messina, Sandrine Schneuwly, Mélanie Schroff, Yasmine Sefraoui, Lucas Shooner, Emma Simonin, Victor Sitavanc, Alice Sorg, Raphaël Stäubli, Arthur Stepczynski, Barbara Urmossy, Camyl Vigneault, Anthony Viola, Laura Vuffray, Alexander Wegener, Jian Wong, Hin Yiu are the students who attended the studio.

Overall question
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 percent 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.
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.

Assignment
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.
«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.

Procedure
Each student conducts research in a working group of three to seven members. They enter the topic as researchers on a selected type of food. The research was divided into three phases: Cultivation, Collection and Distillation. Each phase was accompanied by a forum with lectures, discussions and presentations. From the first to the last forum, the role of the students changed from listener to speaker. The aim of Cultivate was to gather practical empirical knowledge in a 1:1 experiment. Collect analysed the natural and artificial conditions that determine production and processing, focusing on the role of architecture. It was mapped with a collection of selected typologies. Interviews with producers in Switzerland provided an insight into current practice. Parameters such as social integration, energy and resource consumption, territorial changes were compared on the basis of a selected planning or processing method. In the final step, Distilllation the expected outcome was the clarification of the research question on more sustainable food production and the contribution of architecture. It had to be presented comprehensibly in a five-minute video.

Results/Conclusion
All the results were presented in a joint exhibition. The process of practical experimentation was also consciously integrated from success and failure. The collectively gathered data provided an insight into the territorial transformation of Switzerland. The connection with the climate and the integration of outdated building typologies showed the close connection and responsibility of architecture. In particular, the necessary symbiosis between built space, climate quality and territorial integration was recognised several times.
The students pointed out in theire 24 Videos potentials such as:
– Underground garages for mushroom cultivation
– Re-utilisation of waste heat for drying processes
– Air quality and waste heat with greenhouses
– Social spaces for collective food processing
– Promotion of local food and building identities
– Production with low tech
– Architecture instead of technology
– Building and planning with local resources
– There is no waste

The project was submitted for the Swiss Arc Award 2024 in the Next Generation category and published by Elisa Schreiner.