Road Trip to the Future
When O+A held its kick-off meeting for Food for Thought Truck almost three years ago, we all thought we were launching a fun project that would get us out of the office, put us in touch with some new collaborators and give our designers an exercise in unconventional thinking. We couldn’t know we were rehearsing for a future not far away in which unconventional thinking would be our daily assignment.
By the end of FFTT’s journey O+A had deepened its engagement with the activism surrounding climate change and social justice, which in turn, prepped our team for the big-picture reassessment required of workplace design by the pandemic. The FFTT story feels almost prophetic now. As told in our book Food for Thought Truck, published by Artifice Press last year, it’s a demonstration of how thinking on your feet (and on your wheels) can give design a new purpose at precisely the moment the world needs remodeling. For the next few weeks, members of the team will read brief excerpts from Food for Thought Truck.
Chapter 1: Meeting for the first time, O+A’s team of idealists try to envision what a design studio on wheels might accomplish. Will it be a stylish architectural gesture or an exercise in social outreach? Or will it be both?
Chapter 2: Al and Verda have been at it during shelter in place, reading short excerpts from the Food For Thought Truck Book. In this short clip we actually take our project seriously and start shopping for a real truck. Hope you enjoy our soothing voices and exciting story!
Chapter 5: Verda recounts the unforgettable day she and Chase drove to Berkeley to check out a truck — not realizing they were looking at O+A’s future studio on wheels.
Chapter 8: Turning a food truck into a design studio means peeling it open like a can of sardines. Verda introduces Phil Horton from PK Tool and Production, our man with a saw and the courage to use it.
