THE LINK BETWEEN COOKING AND DESIGN
By Chris Lefteri, WGSN, 12 November 2010
From deciding on the ingredients to preparing the dish and finally presenting it in an appetising manner, the parallels between cooking and design are striking. In fact, if you were to look specifically at materials, you’d find that our need for food and products has always been closely linked - from wheat straws mixed with mud in adobe bricks to animal hides and fur in everything from clothing to shelters.
One of the earliest forms of plastic is called "casein", a name derived from "caseus", which is Latin for cheese, referring to the use of milk in the production of the material. A quick internet search for "milk plastic" will give you a variety of recipes for this versatile plastic that you can try out in your own kitchen.
The need to use every resource efficiently is as relevant today as it was for our ancestors, and this report will look at how food, cooking and even eating continue to inform the creative process. The materials, products and projects featured here all show that there are plenty of rich ideas in an area that may initially seem unconnected to design.
Traditional
- Traditional Japanese sake cups, "ika tokkuri", are made with dried squid skin
- Byproducts from rice growing are important materials in traditional crafts, reinterpreted here in Gina Hsu and Nagaaki Shaw’s bird houses and stool
- Hilary Berseth coaxed bees to create shapes for her Programmed Hive project
- Inspired by the traditional technique for making rock candy, Tokujin Yoshioka designed a whole range of materials, including the Venus chair featured here
- The production of leather, although the material is natural and biodegradable, often involves the use of chemicals for dyeing and preservation, made completely redundant in Massimo Varetto vegetable-tanned leather goods for Italian brand Asap
Food waste
- Fish leather is a grossly overlooked resource, with the majority of skins from the fishing industry going to waste, but the German company Nanai (www.nanai.eu) supplies a wide range of fish leather, available in many colours and surface effects
- Eggshell is a remarkable material in its own right, beautifully utilised in this range of stationery by Nicolas Cheng
- Recent RCA graduate Kieren Jones’ Community Commerce project takes a look at local resources, turning a chicken coop into a manufacturing powerhouse, providing everything from moulded bone products to leather textiles - and food, of course
- A clear demonstration of the potential of waste as a source of energy and raw material, Mischer’Traxler’s Nespresso Battery was used to power an array of clocks in an installation during Vienna Design Week 2010
- Solanyl (www.biopolymers.nl) is a plastic material made with waste potato peel from Dutch potato-chip manufacturers, a resource that would otherwise go to waste
- Chewing gum is, in fact, a form of plastic, an insight that led London-based designer Anna Bullus to develop a process for sterilising and recycling the material for use in new products
Supermarket ingredients
- Young Italian designer Formafantasma developed the Autarchy range of durable products entirely from vegetables and other food crops
- Curran (www.cellucomp.com) is a very strong and lightweight material with comparable properties to glass- and carbon-fibre composites, only it is made with entirely biodegradable and renewable carrots
- These beautifully crafted salt and pepper shakers by Takeshi Ishiguro are made with moulded rice slurry
- Unlike many of the early vegetable-based plastics, Mirel (www.mirelplastics.com) is a corn-based, durable and hard-wearing material suitable for everything from consumer products to packaging
- Acknowledging the city’s rich cafe and patisserie tradition, Studio Makkink & Bey designed the Silver Sugar Spoon installation entirely from sugar for the 2010 edition of Vienna Design Week
Food in fashion
- Materials researcher Suzanne Lee started the Bio-Couture project to explore the use of laboratory-grown bacterial cellulose in textile design and fashion, using basic food ingredients
- Despite difficulties in colour consistency and other production issues, Aveda’s range of Ecouture clothing uses vegetable-based fabric dyes throughout the collection
- Taking the notion of fashion and materials into the extreme, Tobias Wong’s Gold Pills takes into account the fact that gold passes through the body without being affected by the digestive process
Designing food experiences
- Marije Vogelzang is an Amsterdam-based self-professed "eating designer", exploring the boundaries between form, taste and environment
- Looking at the similarities between industrial manufacturing processes and cooking, Mischer’Traxler’s Till You Stop cake-decoration machine lets the user decide the amount of icing
- UK food scientist Rachel Edwards-Stuart has worked with restaurateur Heston Blumenthal in developing novel culinary ideas at the chef’s Michelin-star eatery The Fat Duck, blending sensorial experiences such as tactility and acoustics with more traditional notions of dining and eating
- Zoe McLaughlin and the rest of the team at the Materials Library at King’s College London are well underway with a broad-ranging investigation into the senso-aesthetic properties of materials, ie, everything from visual qualities to acoustics to taste. Last year they focused on taste, gaining valuable insights into how things like food packaging and cutlery may subtly influence our perception of food and eating
Grow your own
- Japanese designer Maketo Azuma used a material called Terramac® (www.unitika.co.jp) for his Time of Moss installation at last year’s Senseware exhibition. Terramac® is a three-dimensional textile made with biodegradable polylactic acid fibers that can be used to support the growth of plants like moss.
- Mycobond® (www.ecovativedesign.com) is a new type of composite material that uses mycelium, the root system of mushroom, as a binder for a loose aggregate. These two components will gradually merge and form a strong and durable material.
- Active packaging is the result of a joint research initiative between ’s Fraunhofer Institute and BASF that uses added natural dyes like riboflavin and chlorophyll in plastic films and mouldings to protect perishables like food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
- A classic material in the world of bioplastics, Mater-Bi® (www.novamont.com) is made entirely with fermented corn starch and supplied in pellets that can be injection-moulded and extruded just like any other plastic material. The disposable cutlery featured here was designed by Milan-based designers Pandora Design.
- Eindhoven-based designer Gionata Gatto’s UrbanBuds project transforms recycled textiles into fertile ground for plants, realising the unexpected and hidden potential in this abundant material. For a selection of recycled fabrics, visit www.ovattificiofortunato.it
http://www.wgsn.com/content/wgsn/unifiedsearch.html?q=%20%20Studio%20%20%20Formafantasma's%20&t=all&_charset_=utf-8
No comments:
Post a Comment