The Experienced City

The Trussell Trust predicts that this winter it will give out six emergency food parcels a minute in the UK. In parallel to this, the regularity and normality of eating as an experience, particularly eating at an establishment, is ever increasing. In the first quarter of 2019 86% of consumers spent money on eating out, and the expectation of experience and ornamentation is on the same trajectory.

Currently the urban realm hosts nearly all opportunities for this ever growing consumer market. However there is no clear and successful city-wide intervention that aims to mitigate or resolve the issues of food poverty that many face.

The ritual of sharing food amongst company acts as a driver to many other basic human needs, largely within the realms of discourse and companionship. There however seems to be a disconnect between the basic needs that sharing a meal in the city can provide, in comparison to the outcome of a meal consumed within the market of ornamentation.

Is there a solution that realigns the balance so that the experience of food within the city is more aligned to the basic needs that this act could provide. Are there new experiences and benefits that food within the city can provide, which the market has not allowed for?

Can a shift in market patterns and social conscious allow more people in society to access food, and its benefits?

Theoretical Underpinnings