Design for life

For a majority of people dinner is about eating although nowadays in most parts of the world, eating is not only about survival anymore but also about sharing an experience with friends or family, tasting a food from somewhere else, a particular way of exchanging.

David Trubridge who had given the same workshop twice already, made his students rethink the whole experience of having dinner from the start, creating an occasion to experiment eating and drinking in a new way, making them reflect on the social implications of  a meal and the luck we have to be able to eat everyday. Having worked on sustainable design projects for a long time, David Trubridge explained in one of the lectures he gave during the course of the workshop how design is and should be about survival, not about luxury. Designing objects that we actually need really, objects which have been so well crafted that they are made to last for many generations. He talked about the necessity of redesigning the process of making and not only the object itself.

Participants explored the themes of sharing, care and appreciation through social based experiences such as preparing a drink for someone who had to drink it eyes shut. The drink in question could be a tasty surprise.

Each of the three groups chose one of these themes and explored it in relationship to the rite of dinner. The latter was going to take place in three different locations, the Shigeru Ban pavilion, the dome of Jörg Schlaich and the bamboo room by Simon Velez.

Diners were given a candle nested in a plastic bottle to go from one location to another.

The pavilion of appreciation had glasses, cutlery and plates made of natural materials which the food could easily fall off so the guests could not take too much and appreciate better the limited quantities. The sharing pavilion offered drinks on a balance so people had to help themselves simultaneously to avoid one side from falling down. Finally the caring pavilion offered trays of food that people had to share with their neighbors.

This whole experience happening in nature had the flavor of a very sophisticated restaurant. 

David Trubridge