Food Vault | Food Resilience Center

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  • Type: Open Competition

Food Vault competition to Design a food vault that will act as a food security centre with a (i) Distribution centre and an (ii.) Depository. An open centre where people can volunteer to learn about how our food is produced. The competition aims not only at bringing in organisations and NGOs that help in collecting, managing and distributing surplus food but allows architects to work on a challenging and urgent typology in today’s world.

Fig: 1 – Rise of consumerization (Credits- Bernard Hermant)

Consumer culture

Food – fuels the souls, feeds the body. It has inspired cultures to transform our basic needs into extraordinary dishes of creation. It influences a nation’s socio-economic status, drives us to work and impacts us our entire life.

How what and why we ate, and eat tells a lot about the past, future and present of a civilization. For our society, the rise in industrialization was where our food consumption changed, while agriculture still is the main producer of food. The result of mass production has led to an increase in consumer outlets which is fuelling consumerization. 

The problem is not the inefficiency of food production but an imbalance in food distribution. Due to this, some parts of the world have plentiful and less costly food which contributes to caring less about what one eats, but more about what one buys.

To meet rising needs has resulted in 1.3 billion tonnes of food wastage every year.

Fig: 2 – Surplus and Shortage of food (Credits- Fredericks Burg)

The paradox of distribution

Despite the food surplus in our first-world bubble, food shortage is the reality.  The unequal food distribution due to price rise and economic complexity has given a clear picture of poor food management in our world policies. Surplus and shortage of food is now a paradox. 

The fact that most of us are living in urban areas and getting affordable food has disengaged us with the global crisis and food insecurity. Food production has contributed to most of the waste in the past decade.

Our ways of unsustainable eating have also led to environmental degradation in both the natural and built environments, resulting in climate changes and much more.

These ways and distribution processes are neither acknowledged nor addressed by major economies. The need to take control and make changes to reduce food waste is the need of the hour. How can we shape and present these issues by addressing them through architecture?

Fig: 3 – PMGKY scheme

Collaboration for food management

While some of us are less Informed about food distribution, there are organizations contributing to the management of food surplus and waste. These groups are aware of environmental impacts and food shortages caused by the overproduction of food and are changing foodscapes at micro and macro levels. They form a diverse range, from brewers, restaurant owners, charity groups to big government organizations and community programs.

The main objective of these organisations is to make a point that food from food surplus is still edible and the stigma related to it needs to be changed. The answer to food waste might be as simple as the recovery of food and distribution of essentials, though doing it is complicated.

For this very reason can organizations and groups like these come together?

Each with their expertise can formulate a better distribution service?

And can we as architects, provide them with space and infrastructure to do so?

Fig: 4 – Unilever Foods Factory and Distribution centre

Brief of the competition

Brief: Design a food vault that will act as a food security centre with a (i) Distribution centre and an (ii.) Depository.

The Distribution centre will consist of provisions for giving out subsidised food grains and other services, while the depository will act as storage or a safe place for food for future emergencies. During a crisis or disruption, there will be food and essential support in all forms.

The centre will focus on providing subsidised meals and housing provisions for Public distribution schemes and other organizations which distribute food grains and edible food surplus daily.

It will also act as an open centre where people can volunteer to learn about how our food is produced. The competition aims not only at bringing in organisations and NGOs that help in collecting, managing and distributing surplus food but allows architects to work on a challenging and urgent typology in today’s world.

 

Design objectives

The following objectives can be a point of beginning to conceive this design. Participants are free to form their programmatic outline according to the user group.

Dual: Design a centre in a way that will act as a resilience centre in times of crisis as well as a primary distribution centre for food services daily.

Functions: Other than providing subsidised services and helping during food emergencies, what other functions for the community will your security centre house?

Robust: Ideate to design a strong that can withstand structurally as well as functional during a humanitarian crisis.

 

Site

Location: Bogota, Colombia
Area: 9924 sq.m
Height restriction: 10 metres
Maximum Built-Up Area: 9924 sq.m
Ground coverage: 50%
Coordinates: 4°36’52.4″N 74°10’04.9″W

Food security needs in Colombia remain high due to internal conflict and periodic natural disasters, as well as the influx of vulnerable Venezuelans and other migrants crossing into Colombia. Moreover, the rising incidents of forced confinement and displacement perpetrated by armed groups limit Colombians’ ability to access their crops, livelihoods, and basic goods and services, posing severe implications for vulnerable households’ food security. As of now Colombia as a whole is still away from a major food crisis, the possibility of it happening cannot be denied a due increase in activities from armed forces and recent political unrest among the general public.

The need to prepare for the unprecedented crisis is necessary and the food vault can be one option to face the upcoming issues with food security. The selected site in Bogota is the city limits to efficiently work daily as well as for the nearby areas of low-income settlements who would benefit from the centre the most.

 Additional Resources

This competition contains additional resources that contain a set of files useful to complete the competition submission. This folder is made available on your profile dashboard automatically as soon as you register.

This additional resource folder of this competition contains:

Submission Format files in PSD | AI | InDD,
Guide to Journal Section + Questions,
Site Images,
High-Resolution Site Map, and
CAD file of the Site plan.

 

Submission Requirements

  1. Recommended number of sheets/presentation images/boards:
    3 (Three) of size [2800px x 3500px] in portrait digital format (JPEG only).
  2. Minimum 3 (Three) & No maximum sheet limit. Each image should be less than 15MB. (Do not submit PNG format)
  3. Minimum requisite submission are sheets/boards + Cover image containing:
    1. Site plan
    2. Key concept section x 1
    3. 3D views x 4
    4. Additional cover image of 2000px x 1000px
    5. Write an article/story in the Journal section# of the project (of about 700-1000 words) answering the questions given in the guide pdf you receive in the additional resources.

 

Submission Guidelines

  • Under additional resources, which you will receive after registration, you will be provided with a submission sheets template.
  • Submit JPEG images only.
  • Ensure that the final sheets submitted do not include your name or any other mark of identification.
  • Mention sheet number on the corner of every sheet.
  • All the sheets or images will be viewed on a digital device. e.g. Laptop screen or projector. Uploaded sheets or images will not be physically printed for evaluation. The submission hence should be prepared for digital viewing only.
  • Tip: Remember that your sheets will have to convey your ideas. Try using comprehensive presentation techniques; use images, illustrations, sketches, views, diagrams, text, etc. to express the design fully. For example, use exploded views to discuss multi-leveled conceptual models better.

 

 Eligibility

  • The minimum eligible age for participation is 18 years.
  • The competitions are open worldwide for designers from any discipline.
  • You can participate as an individual or as a team of a maximum of 4 members.
  • All students and professionals can participate in the competitions.
  • For Students: A student is someone who is currently enrolled in a full-time graduate/undergraduate program at a university anywhere in the world on the date of registration. We will need proof of identity upon the result declaration. The proof of identity should clearly state that you were enrolled in the institution at the time of registration. You may also produce a bonafide/authorized certificate from the institution as proof of identity. Students are allowed to involve one mentor/professor/guide in their team provided the mentor has been authorized via a bonafide certificate of the University.
  • All the participants who do not belong to the student category will be considered professionals by default. Ph.D. candidates will also be considered professionals.
  • Institutional access is a program for students only if they are participating in the competition as a group of 20 people and want to submit 5-20 entries together. Institutional access has to be done under the guidance of a mentor/professor.
  • A team with even one professional will be considered as a professional entry.

 

Base Rules

  • You can submit more than one project but they have to be registered separately.
  • Your submission as part of any competition is linked to your UNI user account which stands as your identification. We do not have any identification codes.
  • Hence, your submission sheets should not include any form of identification or personal information such as your names, organization, city, etc.
  • This is a design idea challenge only. There is no built commission/realization associated with the problem.
  • Each competition requires submission of original work. If referring to an existing work like text, theory, images, or ideas, giving due credit is mandatory. Otherwise, it will be counted as plagiarism.
  • The official language of the competitions is English.
  • The registration fee is non-refundable. Therefore, should a participant or team change their mind, refuse or fail to submit an entry after registering, the registration amount will not be refunded. Read the cancellation policy for more information.
  • If there are any changes in competition brief or schedule, they shall be updated on the website.
  • When you register for a competition, you are automatically agreeing to the terms and conditions of UNI.
  • Anybody working with UNI or associated with us are not eligible to participate or receive awards in competitions hosted on UNI. That includes currently working employees at UNI, jury members, community moderators or contract agencies, and their direct relatives.

 

Judging Criteria

The entries will be judged by an international jury of the competition on the following criteria:

Presentation: The fundamental to a good entry is a visual delivery of ideas.

Concept/Idea: Quality of thought and intent in pre-design phase.

Programme/Spaces: How the spaces are conceived along with the programme.

Design Outcome: The final architectural outcome of the solution.

The judging panel can also add other criteria based on their internal discussions – which will be in line with the problem statement. Participants are advised to fulfill above given criteria first in their design. Names of the jury panel will be announced soon.

The decision of the Judges Panel is final, no appeals will be entertained and no further correspondence shall be entered into.

Please note that the jury scores are NOT affected by the number of likes on a project. Every submission is evaluated based on the judging criteria. However, ‘Likes’ play a role in determining the People’s Choice Awards.

 

Schedule:

Registration Deadline: 7 March 2022

Submission Deadline:  8 March 2022

Result Announcements: 5 May 2022

 

 

For more details, please visit here.

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