Dominique Ramrath

Dream factory against immoderation. 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 as garbage.

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 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. 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 needs. Although the city is broadly positioned with topic-related organizations such as the food policy council, the Cologne Food Bank, The Good Food and Foodsharing, specific spatial gaps emerge from 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. The approach is less about fighting causes but rather about 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 were designed as examples in Kalk, an eastern district of Cologne.

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