CitySeed: Design Brigade Week 5
Overview
Week 5 was the first week of concept design. We started the week with everyone bringing in sketches, after a day of reflecting on their own following the mid-point review. We spread the drawings on a table, critiquing them as a group and seeing where they might combine and overlap. The team began to split to into thinking through two scales of design: the long-term and macro scale, exploring the vision for a permanent built Cityseed farmers market, and the short-term and small scale, exploring a more specific and pragmatic interventions in the current market that could make it more inclusive today. While we began developing initial design ideas, we continued to engage stakeholders with diverse perspectives.
On Tuesday afternoon, the team visited Four Root Farm, a long time vendor at the market, to chat with Aaron and Caitlin, an architect and farmer on our advisory board.
At the end of the week, our team presented updates on our design work with food leaders Angela McKee-Brown of Edible Schoolyard, Curt Ellis of FoodCorps and Ivan Rodriguez of San Francisco Unified School District to get feedback on our concepts.
Site Visit Takeaways at Four Root Farm with Aaron and Caitlin
During our visit to the root farm, after a tour of the diverse crops, we sat next to a tomato greenhouse and discussed concerns and ideas with Caitlin, Rachel, and Aaron. The market was unexpectedly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in multiple ways, according to the Four Root team. Consumers with concerns for health and safety were turning to local farms, food sources that they trusted more. Distancing protocol also affected operation logistics, with client interactions becoming digital and distribution directly from the farm rather than the market. We also discussed ways in which farmers are romanticized as personalities to the public, when their real priority is the quality and value of their produce for eaters. Their prices, they noted, were cheaper than alternatives such as Stop & Shop, and they wanted shoppers to understand the farmers’ market as a healthier and better option for regular groceries. The Four Root team also spoke about the value of a permanent space for the market, which would help operations during different weather conditions and consolidate locations into a more efficient center. This was an idea that CitySeed also raised during our last conversation with them.
Transition from Research to Design
The short-term team concentrated on the education potential of the market to reach a larger audience and contribute to the diversification of the market visitors. We brainstormed concepts that would be simple to make and could serve multiple functions to address multiple problems. One initial idea was how to combine a place to pause with an information kiosk for the market. We also considered how to partner with local community organizations to facilitate awareness. In the same lens of education around the market, we thought about how to make different foods familiar through the programming of recipe sharing, and how an interactive cookbook format might engage more people. Finally, we thought about how community art might come into the market and be an eye-catching draw for passersby while and encouraging a sense of public ownership of the market.
The long-term team focused on reframing the major themes of our initial research in order to address how those issues translate in the creation of a permanent physical space for CitySeed. We began by thinking about the selection of a site for the market, paying attention to factors such zoning rules and infrastructural realities and exploring how site specific qualities could generate different opportunities for CitySeed’s markets and the overall food system of New Haven.
Advisor Conversation Feedback
Angela, Ivan and Curt gave great feedback, encouraging our work and noting how we should consider ways in which community engagement could help shape the design process. In the specifics of the projects, they shared their real-world experiences in asking us how to think about the circulation and navigation of the designs, the small details that would make the designs feel more inclusive and the conceptual role of each design in the larger food system.
Next Steps
- Iterate designs and incorporate feedback
- Start to define the specific parameters and deliverables for each concept
