Investigating urban foodways from the human scale: reconnecting residents to land and community

Abstract

The human-nature dichotomy has created a rift that has drastically impacted the global environment. To accept the intrinsic value of nature across the disciplines of the built environment begins a process of healing and reform from the local to the global scale. Environmental philosophers, such as Arne Naess, encourage the learning and practicing of ecological knowledge to gain perspective of the interconnectedness between peoples and their landscapes. Food and agriculture, for example, can be used as a tool to highlight human’s dependency on the role of nature in production. Agrarian and Indigenous communities practice food production methods that value land sensitivity, regeneration and reciprocity as opposed to the harmful practices that comprise the global food system. The deep, intergenerational knowledge that is gained through regional food production generates environmental virtue and nurtures individual and collective identities connected to a local place. In an increasingly urbanized world, connections to a natural region are being overshadowed by unlimited human expansion. Grounding design in regional and natural sensory immersion from the city to the human scale can stimulate identity and a sense of place. The design solution for this practicum explores the concepts of place and identity, interiority and practical wisdom by considering the human-nature connection within a new urban food network. This practicum examines how interior design has the opportunity to embed eco-consciousness and healing at the human scale of an urban metabolism by valuing community learning and highlighting new and traditional food processes that are linked to the landscape.