My project is about creating more opportunities to share at Losaeter, through a collaborative recipes book. Recipes books can be transmitted during generations and have good purposes: learning how to cook, getting to know more about people that wrote in it but also leaving memories and records.
Written by Agathe Boudinet Cornuault, Systems Oriented Design
01 / The Brief
How to build a community through shared recipes?
I built my brief around 3 axes I had interest in, which are: co learning, documentation, and community sharing.
I figured that these interests are in fact related and highlighted during the farm to fork process and the Community Dinner, since it’s the main event happening in Losaeter.
From this starting point, I want to look for what could be improved during this event, to strengthen the connection between my 3 axes.
I focused on 2 improvement I felt relevant for Losaeter:
Creating more sharing opportunities: sometimes, things at Losaeter can feel a little impressive, so people can feel a little shy to reach out. I want to dedicate space, virtual or not, to sharing.
Having more explanations about what is made at Losaeter: nothing is really explained there, about what is made in general but also during the farm to fork process. People often must ask a core volunteer what they should do, how and when. Making things more explicit would facilitate communication and give more visibility about what is done.
Figure 1: [ADD CAPTION – not provided yet]
My project is about reconnection between people and with soil and food.
It is a collaborative recipes book, which can be used by everyone at Losaeter. This book should be used mostly on Wednesday during the Community Dinner and the farm to fork process.
People can write anything they want in it; a recipe, some advice about cooking, information about the food, a drawing, a picture, a feeling, everything they feel is worth sharing.
It is supposed to be a little messy: no restrictions, no rules, everyone is free to use it as they like.
The aim of this book is to be a record of everything that is made at Losaeter, because sharing makes you learn. The more you documentate, the more you share, and the more you learn.
My first inspiration was the family recipes book, that started generations before us and that we cherish so much. I want my project to give this same feeling to Losaeter and its people.
02 / The Person
Agathe Boudinet Cornuault, Spatial Design student
My name is Agathe, I am 20 and I study Spatial Design back in my home country, France.
Since I was a kid, I have always been interested in cooking. Getting older, I realize how much time and love you must put into it, but also of much it can bring people together.
Growing up as French, you spend a lot of time around a table during family dinners, in the kitchen cooking with your grandparents, on special events of course but also on everyday life, it’s part of the way of living in France.
I feel like that is where my love for cooking comes from, and because I know my work is going to make people happy, and I know I will get to share this happiness with them.
Figure 2: Agathe Boudinet Cornuault, 2025
03 / The Motivation
Cooking as a way of sharing
On wednesday at Losaeter, it feels like a beehive where all the bees are trying to do something to help, but often, they don’t know what and they don’t know how.
I want to make things there more explicit, so everyone can feel involved in the community. From my point of view, this comes with better communication.
Therefore, my goal with this project is to create opportunities to share more with people at the Community Dinner, and all that comes before, during the farm to fork process.
I want them to feel the same way I do when I share a homemade dinner with my loved ones. The gratitude I feel of eating something we made ourselves, and together.
04 / Past and Present
Creating memories
I started my Gigamap with a small description about what is Losaeter and what is made there, but I only added what was relevant with my brief and project. This led me to a conclusion about what was my biggest interest: the Community Dinner.
From this starting point, I represented a timeline of all the steps to go from the garden to the plate, from the farm to the fork. This timeline repeats itself every Wednesday, day of the Community Dinner.
Then I added more details about this process, asking myself regular questions we use in Systems Oriented Design: Why, Who and Where? The answers to these questions give more information about what I am working on.
Figure 3: [ADD CAPTION – not provided yet]
Once I gave more context about the current situation and what I am interested in, I focused on what were the missed opportunities, what could be improved, in this whole farm to fork process.
I also added images, from pictures that I took when I was in Losaeter during Community Dinners. I feel like it explains even more what is going on there, and what caught my attention: food, people, life.
The goal with this map is to highlight the improvement possibilities, and to have more visibility on the issues which are the following: lack of documentation, communication and sharing, but also the lack of explanations about what is made at Losaeter.
My Gigamap should be read from left to right: I tried to make it as readable as possible, in the easiest way so it can touch as many people as possible.
05 / Futures and Interventions
The Saeter Book
This second Gigamap is about my project and how I went there. It focuses on the role of food and recipes, but also community and shared memories.
I had two leverages points that I could work on which were creating opportunities to share and making things more explicit at Losaeter.
My point is that cooking and eating together brings connections between people, with food and nature.
The main intervention I proposed is a collaborative recipes book called “The Saeter Golden Book”. The idea is to create a shared space where anyone coming to Losaeter can contribute in some way, to make it “more inclusive”.
Figure 4: [ADD CAPTION – not provided yet]
I also added what was my point of view of what could be a long-term future for Losaeter.
My axes for improvement are the 3 that led me to my project: co-learning, documentation and community sharing.
I hope my intervention can help reach this desirable future and encourage creation and memories making.
This Gigamap can also be read from left to right.
Both of my maps are supposed to be somehow messy as a reminder of the “scrapbook” effect that my recipes book is full of. All the colors used on these maps came from a picture of flowers I took at Losaeter, so you could really feel the essence of the place, nature and people.
Finally, I want both of my maps to represent what is the heart of Losaeter: the Community Dinner as well as the other activities made there.
Together, these activities contribute to making Losaeter a strong and connected community.
This project was developed as part of Module 1 of Systems Oriented Design: Catalysing Desirable Transformations, an interdisciplinary master’s course at AHO’s Institute of Design.
