Thursday afternoon, I visited the community garden MOBY (My Own Back Yard), originally started by ECU ID graduate Jason few years ago. The community garden is located on 11th and commercial, with approximately 30 plots, and 5 accessible plots for seniors, people with disability, pregnant women, and etc.
Tina, was generous and extremely helpful. :) I was very fortunate to get her feedback and suggestions on my research and design directions. She mentioned, as an urban gardener, the reasons for self food production are much more than simply reducing food cost, but rather, to regain the connection with nature, the pleasure and gratification of being self-sufficient.
People don't seem to know where their food come from anymore. We take food for granted. We choose to ignore, and neglect the process which it takes from farm land to get to our dinner plate.
This makes me re-think about my project. Providing a design solution that enables urban agriculture is NOT enough.. it takes a lot more for people to change their behaviours than simply presenting them what's possible. I want to be able to communicate the gratification, the satisfaction, and the pride which urban gardeners like Tina value, to people that have yet to decide to participate in such activities.
Lately I've been focusing on developing my Project Design Brief, which will be uploaded in the next post. This is a milestone, marking the crossing from our analytical phase, to the chaotic, yet innovative stage.. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment