Photo: David Gillespie
Last night, the Dutch conceptual design company Droog came to town. First off, that’s really cool. If you’re not familiar, Droog’s products are definitely worth checking out: they make everything from bamboo bikes and a “three-star bird restaurant” to a doorbell that clinks against crystal wineglasses to ring.
But the Droog Lab Series these high-flying Dutchmen were presenting—“Here, There, Everywhere”—was also interesting. It explores how themed projects implemented in different countries like Russia, Belgium and the US can inspire and direct the future of design. “We wanted to go to new challenges,” says Droog co-founder Renny Ramakers. “We are looking for creativity beyond the world of design.” In Russia, for example, the lab explored the theme of consumption with products like 24-carat gold screws and diamond-studded tires.
At the Gladstone Hotel last night, however, the team was presenting findings from their foray into the Canadian north, where they explored how harsh, extreme conditions could influence new city environments and urban development. The outcome: XXL City, a concept by Canadian-born, Amsterdam-based designer Cynthia Hathaway. Inspired by her experience in Pond Inlet, Baffin Island, exploring the Inuit practice of sharing large mammals, Hathaway envisioned a giant feeding mecca and community hub that grows giant vegetables and animals. Focusing mostly on the possibilities of Cinderella-sized pumpkins and IMAX-sized hares (“We need to start eating things that are cute,” says Hathaway), the complex includes greenhouses, a farm, slaughterhouse, kitchen, preserving/canning facility and retail section, all of which challenges our notions of food preparation due to the volume of raw material. “Because there’s so much of it,” says Hathaway, “you need to interact with it differently.”
The kitchen, for example, now houses circular saws and other machinery to work with giant pumpkins and mushrooms. A huge table intersects the entire complex and can feed 5,000 people at a time. In addition to touching on the ideal of offering entire communities healthy, nourishing and sustainable food in mass amounts—a 900-pound pumpkin could produce 600 pies—the “big farm” concept is also a clever twist on “big food.” It challenges people’s notions of food availability and transport; giant vegetables and animals simply can’t be transported the same (environmentally damaging) way that smaller ones were. “When you grow it big,” says Hathaway, “they will come to you, instead of insisting that it come to them.”
Photo: David Gillespie
We nabbed a seed for growing a giant pumpkin at the event, so come next fall if you see bursts of orange and curls of greenery poking out our office window; you’ll know pie is on the way and you’ll have Cynthia Hathaway to thank for it.
