The Tasty Consumerist

- field Health, Sustainability
- By Ailie Hansen
We currently produce almost double the amount of food, that would be sufficient to feed everyone on the planet. Despite this, a path toward global food security does not currently exist and experts believe we will be in a food crisis by 2050. Statistically we are in one now; 11% of the population is at risk of starving, while four in ten adults are overweight and at least a third of all food produced globally is going straight to landfill. In Australia 28% of food that enters our kitchens, never gets eaten. Our idea of what constitutes a kitchen; cavernous storage, refrigeration, hidden food and excess appliances are part of this problem, and ascribe particular behaviours and largely outmoded domestic roles.
Modern kitchens, derived from the Frankfurt Kitchen, conceived in 1926 for the “20th century housewife” by architect Margarete (Grete) Schütte-Lihotzky, are perhaps no longer viable in a 21st century Australian household. Not if our kitchens are to assist in achieving some semblance of food security. However, if radically re-thought the home kitchen has the potential to script better nutrition, reduce wastage and facilitate deeper connections with the true value of the foods we consume. This project explores the design of a new typology for the Australian home kitchen, through a series of passive technologies, to empower the sustainability minded and health conscious to connect more with their food, to waste less and to eat better.
- field Health, Sustainability
- By Ailie Hansen