In the framework of the IIT Cloud Studio abroad program, the Illinois Institute of Technology collaborates with the Why Factory this fall. From September to December, a group of 15 students from Chicago are working with us in Delft on the studio “Farm Blocks – Urban Agriculture Beyond Clichés”.

In the framework of the IIT Cloud Studio abroad program, the Illinois Institute of Technology collaborates with the Why Factory this fall. From September to December, a group of 15 students from Chicago are working with us in Delft on the studio “Farm Blocks – Urban Agriculture Beyond Clichés”.

Food, next to energy and water, is one of the key resources driving our cities. The way we produce, distribute, consume and discard food plays a crucial role in how our cities pre- pare for the future. Business as usual is not enough. Today’s global food system has to improve. This requires not only technological innovation but also spatial integration. There is certainly a role for architects and planners to work on this in- tegration, to enable synergies by connecting food in a better way to the other flows of the city.

Is our profession prepared to give an effective contribution to the necessary changes of the global food system? The inter- est is undeniably there. Food related design proposals have popped up in architecture schools all over the globe. There is a photoshopped abundance of green rooftops, happy cows and lucky farmers. But all too often, these images are too un-informed, too small, too romantic and far too far away from the tight realities of food production. We need to get serious in our proposals, realistic in the surfaces and precise in the requirements of food production. In this studio, we take the challenge. The studio includes excursions to different farms, parametric modeling of functional farming typologies and a detailed design approaching the integration of farming and urban program.

Related