Spring Up, designing first steps to food growing

A project of Valeria Ossio, design researcher

During my master study year I conducted research in order to work against the barriers for people to start growing food. To engage with the people I created an interactive questionnaire kit; people would pick up the statement that appeals most from an illustrative book and stick it to paper.

It was a good way to start conversations with people from very different backgrounds. I also looked into successful gardening projects to see which features are most encouraging for people to start growing. Among the various elements that I discovered, a sense of ownership of either the seed pot or orchard trees played an important role in commiting to growing an edible plant.

Based on these findings, I developed Spring Up: a service that offers a series of workshops where people create their own pots and use other playful tools to learn how to grow their seeds. In order to test the system I ran a pilot project with people living in one of the Cyrennians accomodations in Dundee. This kit is aimed to be used in a range of situations, from homeless accomodations, transition initiative events, for schools, and so on.

This coming 27th of August will be the opening of the Masters Show at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. You are all kindly invited to view my resulting work and of course, the work of my peers. The exhibition will be open until the 6th of September