Food Design

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course focuses on food from the origins to the present in order to understand the complex system of the fact of “feeding” people. We will approach to this subject from gastronomy, anthropology, history, etymology and food systems amongst other disciplines thus the course has the aim of giving the students diverse approaches and tools to make them capable not just to understand this interdisciplinary subject but to create design objects or services in relation with food and gastronomy with sense and content.

The course will introduce students to the interaction of design, as a creative process, with food and health, as fundamental part of human being. The relation between design food and health is not only based on the tangible aspects (space, forms, product, packaging...), but in a wide range of approaches, from culture to territory, from well-being to aesthetics. We must understand the whole relation of man with environment to create innovative ways, systems or products to enhance this interaction. Designing in a creative way, connecting mind and hand, the senses and the culture, in a constant communication with other designers, will allow us to find out new ways of understanding our world and improving it.

As part of the development of the aims of the course, the class will visit exhibitions, culinary centers and food designers’ studios in Barcelona’s area.

MODULES
– My own complex food system

– Why we eat what we eat

– Our food heritage

– Few fields where you can cook your design

LEARNING OBJECTIVES/OUTCOMES
At the end of the course the student will be able to:

– Recognize what is cuisine on the past, present and future

– Think over the fact of feeding and food through a critical reflection and analysis process.

– Recognize the different types of design, designers and their work environment.

– Approach a design project from the briefing to the designed object, accordingly to the user needs and with an interdisciplinary point of view.

REQUIREMENTS
Interest in design, food and gastronomy is required.

TEACHING METHOD
This course will combine lectures, practical exercises to apply concepts, and visits to food design locations in Barcelona.

GRADING
20% commitment and participation in class discussion

30% design process

50% design outcomes

Students will have to complete all the parts included in the grade weights and earn at least a 5/10 in each part.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
– WILSON, Bee: Consider the Fork. A History of How We Cook and Eat, New York: Basic Books, 2012. (history of kitchen technology, from fire to the AeroPress)

– WILSON, Bee: First Bite. How We Learn to Eat, New York: Basic Books and Fourth Estate, 2015.

– POLLAN, Michael: The Omnivore’s Dilemma. A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin Press, 2006.

– POLLAN, Michael: In Defense of Food. An Eater’s Manifesto. New York: Penguin Press, 2008.

– POLLAN, Michael: Food Rules. An Eater’s Manual. New York: Penguin Press. 2009. Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. New York: Penguin Press, 2013.

– FISCHLER, Claude: L’Homnivore, Paris: Odile Jacob, 1990.

– HARRIS, Marvin: Good to eat. Riddles of Food and culture. Long Grove, Il. : Waveland Press, 1985.

– STEEL, Carolyn: Hungry City. How food shapes our lives. London: Random House, 2008

– CAPELLA, Juli. Tapas. Spanish Design for Food. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal de Acción cultural española & Barcelona: Editorial Planeta, 2013.

– “Food Design”, Experimenta. Design, Architecture, Design Culture Magazine. Number 67/68. Madrid: Experimenta, 2014.