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P R C C
Creatives

29.2.2020

Tool

Stone Soup Principle

Building up a kitchen collectively

The Street Kitchen Actions in the 2018 pilot were made possible by community participation. As well as the ingredients coming from the farmers of each Ejido, the kitchen tools were also shared. Our team intentionally started the actions with a few tables, some ingredients, a frying pan, a knife and a cutting board, and little kitchen ware. In principle these tools were not enough for 30 people to cook and eat. In preparation, utensils were requested from neighbours of each community – or location where the action took place – adding on to the kitchen that Cascoland brought in. The making of this kitchen became a collective action that can only happen with collaboration, while reaching out to participants to join the cooking exchanges. 

This tool was further developed into a scheme for inviting neighbours at the Mobile Lab Kitchen events in Rotterdam, Fort Asperen and Madagascar.

The Stone Soup Principle was designed for two functions: co-creation of a mobile kitchen and as a way to reach out to neighbours, 2018. Photo by Bart Majoor
The first Stone Soup principle was tested out at the pilot in Mexico, simply tagging borrowed kitchen ware to identify the vast collection of objects, 2018. Photo by Cascoland
For the BunB Mobile Lab Kitchen Casoland collected kitchen ware, cutlery, plates and glasses from the neighbourhood surrounding V2 Centre for Unstable Media in Rotterdam as a way to engage the neighbours into the kitchen table, 2018. Photo by Cascoland
The tagging system for Stone Soup Principle at the Madagascar Mobile Lab Kitchen, 2019. Foto by Rinda Randiandimbimbahazo
Cups borrowed by social and sustainable project Akani Avoko in Antananarivo, 2019. Photo by Rinda Randiandimbimbahazo

The kitchen is a social place, a com­mon place to gather and connect. It is a place to share not only food, but stories, ideas, aspirations and initiatives. Colaboratory Kitchen is an ongoing mobile and on-site project that brings farmers, scientists, creatives and cooks together around the kitchen table to connect, exchange knowledge and prototype new trans-disciplinary solutions to farming; a test ground for ideas that conciliate land restoration, conservation, food production and better livelihood in farming communities. A response to the lack of connection between disciplines that are key for new alternatives towards more sustain­able and just futures.

The questions at stake are: How do we bridge scientific and local knowledge? What kind of interdisciplinary projects can we create towards a better livelihood and ecological resilience of farmer communities? How can we conserve the environment and its biodiversity in balance with sustainable food production and pair local consumption to global demand?

We create a space for a trans-disciplinary community to grow and take action, by sharing and cooking futures together.

The project was initiated in 2016 as a collaboration between Cascoland and the Forefront Project (WUR, UNAM), a joint effort to design spaces and tools of communication and action towards strengthening socio-ecological bonds, south of the Lacandona Jungle, Chiapas, México. Now a days the scheme is being developed in three rural locations in Mexico: Santo Domingo Tomaltepex, Oaxaca, Xochimilco, Mexico City and Loma Bonita, Chiapas, as a collaboration with UNAM, local organizations and a range of collaborations from professionals in different disciplines.