Food as a system and a material for the creative process in design education

The aim of this article is to explore how food and gastronomy can be integrated within the discipline of design. The first part of the study explores the parallel between gastronomy and design from two perspectives: as system and as sciences. The second part focuses on the special context of Catalonia, where the work of the chef Ferran Adrià has radically transformed gastronomy and, as a consequence, created a network of institutions, designers and studios centered on food.

The last part describes several projects carried out at ELISAVA, which were based on three areas of study: understanding food as a system on the basis of its life cycle and its semantic value; understanding the sensory dimension of food as a material in the context of the Mediterranean culture and studying the creative process of design in parallel with the creative process of gastronomy.