FRAMEWORK

PROJECTS

PROJECT ARCHIVE

In 2012-13, Archeworks focused on design, sustainable food, and healthy communities. Our guiding principle: design can play a greater role in building equitable and accessible food systems. In the second year of our collaboration with Growing Power Chicago, the team proposed products, programs and services to promote greater food system awareness and improve productivity at Iron Street Urban Farm and other urban farm sites across the City. These initiatives respond to the citywide need for greater awareness and participation in the local food movement by its residents-especially youth living in areas without access to affordable fresh quality food.

With a focus on connecting "eaters and feeders", the project aimed to build relationships between urban farms and the communities they serve through mapping, wayfinding and communication tools. The project included development of a regional food campaign, enhancing entrepreneurial programming with Growing Power's Youth Corps, expanding Growing Power's weekly produce delivery program, identifying safe bike routes to get people to the farm, streamlining farm management practices, and creating a wayfinding system using on-site signage. Through these initiatives the team explored the principles of universal design, and the potential for urban agriculture to be more accessible and inclusive to all city residents. The team focused on two primary audiences: youth from low-income backgrounds participating in Growing Power's Youth Corps program, and people with disabilities, including those who have experienced strokes. Our broad aim is to support innovative community-driven solutions, and more inclusive resident participation in healthy lifestyles for areas with a longstanding history of food insecurity, both in Chicago and globally.

View the food awareness campaign posters