Imagining the future food court
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Transition Design Consulting Projects
Tags: Industries, futures, food systems, sustainable innovation
Client: VTT
Summary
What does the future of food look like? How do you picture yourself eating in 5 years? What about 10 years? Are you eating the same things as you do today? How have things changed? What technologies are there? What remains the same?
To explore these questions, we collaborated with VTT to form a comprehensive vision of the future of food. This project seeked to outreach restaurant industry leaders, to gather a better understanding of their perspective on the future of the industry and create a shared vision of the future that can be shared with decision-makers and customers
Challenge
VTT, the research and innovation institute from Finland, created a scenario for 2040, where many of the challenges that make the food system unsustainable were addressed with a self-sufficient system: From power sources to logistics, to production and waste recycling. This vision was set in a food court- as a shopping mall can be a great place to address circularity, once the challenge of fast fashion is addressed and we no longer have a need for so many brands and shops.
However, in order to cultivate a more grounded and comprehensive vision of this future, VTT sought to actively involve various stakeholders. The objective of engaging diverse stakeholders in a futures scenario-building project is multifaceted: to validate assumptions, ensure inclusivity by considering all voices, enrich the vision with diverse perspectives, and collectively discern a preferable future.
A speculative concept of the future food court that emerged from the project: The lab where food is made.
A version of the Berkana Institute’s Two Loops model, adjusted for the restaurant industry
Process
We collaborated with VTT with the goal of engaging with industry “pioneers”, specifically Chefs and restaurant owners wanting to do things differently and push the industry to become more sustainable. We invited the stakeholders to enter future visioning, and validated how realistic the innovation team’s vision could be. and whether this vision makes sense with the path the industry is taking and their desires for the future.
During the process we collected valuable insights for the project team:
We identified some positive signals of the future in Helsinki, which can shape the restaurant industry and be drivers, for sustainability transitions.
At the moment, some practices lock-in behaviours and practices in the local food system. However, for the system to become more sustainable, some of these behaviours need to be recognised and addressed.
We identified the actors in the system that hold responsibility and power to create these changes. But it is important to point out that the responsibility lies in their ability to collaborate and create flows of information with each other.
