Food and crisis – urban food resilience in times of crisis : a design proposal for a campus park in Oslo

Sammanfattning: As humans we tend to think a lot about food, and in our part of the world, food is something that many people take for granted. At the same time, the global population is growing, and urbanization is increasing in a rapid pace. What happens when a crisis emerges, and the food system is interrupted? What happens when food is running low? Does everyone have enough food to eat when a crisis interrupts the fragile system that we are dependent on today? This project is set in a campus park in Oslo, Norway. The purpose of the project is to investigate the possibility of designing a resilient urban park that can transition into producing food in the event of a crisis, without losing the aesthetical values in times of non-crisis. The design proposal is heavily influenced by the attained knowledge from literature, regarding urban farming and urban farming in times of crisis, as well as information gained from a profound site analysis. Hence, the project has used a method of Research for design as a main tool to try to answer the purpose and question at issue. In the presentation of the result, a narrative design approach has been used. This method was used to help the reader, to visualize the park design through different events and circumstances. Furthermore, the presentation of the design proposal is divided into two parts, displaying the park in two different scenarios. In part 1, the park design is presented with its strong resilient framework towards possible crises, that can affect the access of food in Oslo. This approach led to a strategy where the park is divided into three different focus areas, that emerged during the design development. The three focus areas are all contributing tools in the framework for resilience. The three focus areas, involving the Community Hub, the Water reservoirs or water ponds, and the Community Garden, have all been designed with a role to play for resilience as well with convincing aesthetical and architectural values. Part 2, shows the park design, during and after, a possible future crisis scenario, and how the park design and user experiences changes during such times. In summary, this project aims to investigate the possibility of designing a resilient urban park, that can transition into producing food in the event of a major crisis, without losing the aesthetical values in times of non-crisis.