“Slow” architecture and its links with Slow Food Mike Louw University of Cape Town, South Africa Email:
[email protected] There have always been links between food and architecture, but the connections between Slow Food and Slow Architecture that are explored here could highlight a number of lessons learned and shared between these two multidisciplinary movements. As global trends within the context of an increased awareness of sustainability, they could make a contribution towards a renewed focus on local regions, craft and sensory experience. Key words: Slow Food, slow architecture, regionalism, craft, and the senses. Daar was nog altyd skakels tussen kos en argitektuur, maar die skakels tussen Slow Food en Slow Architecture wat hier ondersoek word, kan ’n reeks lesse uitlig wat geleer word deur, en gedeel word tussen, hierdie twee multi-dissiplinêre bewegings. As wêreldwye tendense binne die konteks van ’n toenemende bewustheid van volhoubaarheid, kan hierdie bewegings ’n bydrae lewer tot ’n hernude fokus op plaaslike streke, vakmanskap en sintuiglike ondervinding. Sleutelwoorde: Slow Food, slow architecture, regionalisme, vakmanskap en die sintuie. ver the past few decades there has been an increasing global awareness of the need for sustainable development. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment Oin Stockholm in 1972 highlighted the links between environmental quality and the quality of life (Rogers, Jalal and Boyd, 2005: 42), and the United Nations attempted to bring these concerns onto the political agenda by publishing the report Our Common Future in 1987 (WCED, 1987).1 This report provided the widely-used definition of sustainable development as “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The subsequent Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992,2 the adoption of Agenda 21,3 the Rio Declaration and the establishment of the Commission on Sustainable Development helped to consolidate this awareness into what some might call a collective consciousness.