(Challenge) To come up with a project or brand that would serve as an answer to today’s social and environmental challenges. Aligned with the concept of Degrowth.
(Context) We started with the urban problematic. Cities are boiling with challenges. It’s the meeting point of many cultures where everyone is looking to find their place in society and a fast paced environment where you don’t know who your neighbors are. Indiference is unfortunatelly the common behavior.
How can we create a space of congregation in the cities that fights indifferance and is welcoming to everyone?
(Insight) Public ovens used to be the meeting point in rural small towns since the 12th century in countries like Portugal, France and Spain. Focal points of townlife, these are the places people would go to cook bread and gossip.
(Idea) To rescue the sense of community from small towns to cities. Fire has always brought us together, from ancient times when it became the centre of civilisations to the communal ovens of villages, known to be the meeting point.
(Solution) A community wood-fire oven that aims to bring people together again around fire. Fogar is designed to bring back to the cities the sense of community that we still find in small towns. This is achieved through collective cooking but also a wide range of activities that shed light on topics such as community living, local and circular economy, endangered crafts and generational exchange.
In order to develop a project that can be adaptable to a wide variety of cultural and socioeconomic contexts, we focused on collective engagement by providing a toolkit with essential resources that empower neighbors to create a shared space that reflects their values.
