Pollination Theory

Pollination happens as bees collect nectar to develop their society within their hives. Something similar happens when we look at the development in human society through the needs perspective. Pollination is when through common mechanisms of daily lifestyle people share their cultural values with each other and involuntarily create tolerant bonds between themselves even if they are very different people. It is different from deliberate integration where activities are created for deliberate sharing that may lead to resistance.

DESIGN

Food brings people together

So what is it that brings them together? Through a fairly long survey and kindness of over 45 people, we conclude that it's food. Food has been one of the most successfully integrated artefact of culture across communities and ethnicities. But what is it about food that brings people together? We spoke to Dr. Maayan who is an expert on social integration. She says, “As seen in children of new immigrants who encounter different people from a myriad of ethnicities in their schools, it's shown that they feel most accepted when they share food that they have carried from their homes with their peers and the peers also accept it and react to it.”

People and Place

Components that create co-evolution are people and place. There are three types of spaces where pollination can happen at different levels.Then we started to look into different areas to find what could be a good example of a well integrated immigrant space. 

If we use boxes as a metaphor, Chinatown would be an open box of experiences, also similar to Nolli planning. Compared to a semi open box space like a food hall that has a clear structure but also has a lot of constraints in space and selection. Lastly a closed box of a corporate cafeteria, where food often is survival not enjoyment.

Tiffin Box as Pollen

Inspired from the concept of pollination and our own cultures which are Thai and Indian, we thought about if a person, immigrant or native, bee or insect is an agent then what can be their pollen that they can carry with them. The answer was a tiffin, a travelling lunch box split into units of food made to be eaten by the self and makes it easy to share with others that bring people closer. While growing up we have seen hundreds of people carrying identical yet personalised tiffins that share the same form but different contents that open different worlds on the lunch table over mid-work day conversations.

We step back to analyse the function and ergonomics of the tiffin box which vertically has been used to stack and store a variety of food. But horizontally it contains the nature of unstacking rituals that open for casual sharing and exchanging food. Which we want to emphasise and develop  During the designing process, we combine the existing function of the tiffin box with holistic food curating service along with crafted food selection journey to the space for sharing experience

Service Propositon

A hospitality service in a semi permanent pavilion with open circulation of people. Where semi-open curation of experiences using tiffin boxes and co-cooking experiences meant for people in closed spaces are orchestrated. All in an effort to align them to common efforts, experiences and goals to increase cohesion.

N-Sery

Compared to where people are eating now our service shares some similarities with other hospitality services but what make N-sery different from a market hall, restaurant, and community kitchen are dynamic menu, inclusive food community, proximity to office area, cost effective, available for corporate events, and most importantly hardwiring sharing style of service . As a lovely owner and head chef of a small restaurant we spoke to, auntie Normah said “There is a philosophy in sharing, it’s the way you can develop yourself and know that you can tolerate. You learn to adapt to other cultures and that’s where you get the curiosity to find other people including the values they portray.” Hence our service put emphasis on sharing on the table and also off the table from the food that we sourced from different areas in London. These strings of connections and stories later develop into a network of sharing experience.

We are not changing the eating ritual we are just shaping it.

Impact

With N-sery we are trying to break the box through interactions, the design is in the background, we hardwire sharing to give people freedom, options and build conversations about the land they come from, not the box they are being put into. As we look at the short term we just want people to enjoy, experiment and have a good time. Through this slipping in cultural literacy derived from conversations that they have and beyond this is also where its beyond our hands is where they make it all a habit and are led by curiosity, not judgement. All in order to enable interculturalism. We vetted this with our Nick Wilsden from Nesta and he also showed great confidence in the service from a social impact perspective.