Eating together is an archaic form of sharing that creates community and strengthens informal exchange. In addition to personal preferences and health aspects, availability and costs are major factors influencing the provision of food at university.

In this project, we have explored to what extent high-tech could help to organize a healthy, diverse, individual range of meals that are tailored precisely to the rhythm of life on campus.

Futterlust connects hungry students with local restaurants, brokering alimentary supply and demand. This app acts as a trading platform where restaurants can publish foods they provide and, depending on demand, students can ‘crowdsource’ a particular meal. Restaurants state their conditions: minimum/maximum deliverable quantity, delivery time and specifications, and in return they make more off-peak sales. Students on campus profit from a greater variety than the university cafeterias can provide, getting to sample new cuisines and spice up their daily routine. Even when an order doesn’t work out, because the ‘crowd’ isn’t able to reach the minimum order quantity, customers receive a warning in time to organize Plan B, either through the app or by other means. Local restaurants can also learn from Futterlust, receiving statistics and insights about their most popular dishes and their customers, enabling them to become more resourceful the longer they use the platform.

Outside of Japan, vending machines don’t have a great reputation. However their convenience and accessibility out-of-hours really fills a gap - and our stomachs. Smart technologies have the potential to dramatically improve the quality of vending machine stock. Until now, they were designed to be maintained very rarely, and by specialized staff who are not on-site. Now vending machines can be connected via the Internet-of-Things and their operation easily monitored. Users can view a changing menu on a digital display, remove their chosen product, registered automatically by a sensor, and pay electronically. Where once all vending machine foods had to prove their long-life, this connectivity allows for rapid stock control and replenishment, and therefore healthier, fresher options.

This concept combines smart, automated vending with a social and ecological conscience. The nutritious foods on offer are made using ‘wonky vegetables’ that don’t fullfil aesthetic norms and are often discarded by supermarkets, and are prepared in social kitchens with fair conditions and a charitable purpose. The result is a varied range of healthy soups, stews, spreads and snack pots packaged in ecological glass packaging, facilitated by high-tech stock control.

Students may want better food on campus, but who is going to provide it? Knot argues that it is the students themselves who have the greatest incentive to ensure that good quality food is available at their university. This app provides a way for students to create their own spontaneous supply chains. Those with a talent for cooking can easily find takers for the remaining portions of last night’s dinner, and make a little money on the side while studying. Adventurous but time-poor students can sample their classmates’ cuisines at their convenience.

Knot enables the DIY student cooks to set their own price and distribution method. For example, a cook may arrange to sell 3 portions of curry for 3 Euros each, and leave these in a fridge in the common room on a specific day. A niche market for the student cooks’ food emerges, which works among their peers on the basis of trust. Fellow students submit personal ratings and feedback for the amateur cooks. All these little ‘knots’ form a network on campus in which cooks and eaters are brought closer together, and students take on the responsibility of organizing their own food, and thereby gain independence from a centralized canteen.

Ingredients are freshest when they have just been harvested. Sprouts have an even higher concentration of nutrients and grow quicker than fully-formed vegetables. So how can we go from farm to table as quick as possible? By bringing the farm closer to the table!

Picture a living salad bar where you can pick your favorite micro-greens, as fresh and close to nature as possible. Sprouts can grow at room temperature within a week; space utilization is high, so many portions can be grown in a small space by turning a cafeteria wall into a greenhouse with many shelves. This greenhouse is continually on rotation, so that each day the sprouts move one level closer to harvesting. The stock can be maintained sustainably, and consumers know exactly where their food comes from.

However, hungry students can’t survive on sprouts alone, so these mini-vegetables are combined with many basic staple foods that are easy to buy and prepare in bulk: soups, rice, and pasta are made more interesting through the addition of high-vitamin greens. The way the sprouts are dispensed also mean there is almost no waste, as they can always be left to grow another day. ‘Like Nature’ takes local, transparent farming to a new level, and puts greens back in the spotlight.

The enjoyment of food has a lot to do with creativity and inspiration. Whether students purchase food in the cafeteria or bring their own food to university, their lunches are rarely as inspired and creative as the rest of their academic work! Nor are they necessarily nutritionally balanced and able to provide the right energy to sustain students throughout the day.

‘Onigiri Station’ acts as a DIY workstation where students can learn to prepare better quality meals for themselves. ‘Onigiri’ is one such example of a more balanced lunch: a filled Japanese rice ball that contains a balance of nutrients, it’s easy to prepare and provides a lot of energy.

The station is re-stocked with fresh ingredients, and an overhead projection teaches users how to prepare the chosen food. Students can learn about nutrition through experiencing different cuisines, and at the same time, obtain the skills to re-create this new dish for themselves. The station can easily be built into any existing cafeteria as an easy, stand-alone complement to the usual catering.

When lunch is over, the catering at many universities dries up. Students, however, often keep going until late in the night if they have a deadline to meet. At a small art school like Weissensee, the provision of food after 3pm is severely lacking. By the time evening comes around, a stale cake or chocolate bar from a vending machine simply won’t cut it. Pota.to/Hot Potato is a smarter kind of vending machine, capable of preparing hot food around the clock. This automated fryer produces french fries autonomously: its smart network allows you to place your order remotely, perfectly timed for collection 20 minutes later. Pota.to has all the fun of the fair - the different components of its batch-cooking apparatus are designed to entertain like an amusement arcade. The potatoes take a ride in a basket up to the top, where they are sliced and fall through into a rotating tumbler on a giant wheel of deep-fat fryers. Not a typical ‘black box’, the inner workings of this machine are on full display so users see exactly what they are getting and can trust in consistent quality.

Restefest takes advantage of the strict enforcement of sell-by dates, and instead turns them into occasions for informal exchange and celebration on campus. Sharing a meal with others can create strong moments of connection. In this concept, discarded organic vegetables and ingredients are prepared by a cook using zero-waste strategies, resulting in a special, shared meal among fellow students from different disciplines - a spontaneous symposium, for which no food is wasted. The evenings are organized and realized in a collaborative way, and students can choose how they contribute to the dinner: by either donating their time, labour or a small amount of money. Students can help ‘prep’ the vegetables, and in doing so, they network with their peers and at the same time learn more about sustainable cooking methods. This social supper club is supported by an app that manages all operations. The software helps to minimize the organizational effort of the events, and allows participants to stay in touch afterwards.

Home cooking offers many freedoms and advantages that mass catering cannot provide. On a small scale it is easier to satisfy niche tastes, and make food with a personal touch. Students’ schedules can be varied and spontaneous and they need catering to match. ‘Cluster Kitchen’ complements the everyday catering on offer at universities. This app offers a platform for students to buy and sell their home-made food. If the canteen provides the ‘bread and butter’ of university catering, then ‘Cluster Kitchen’ offers the daily specials. The chalkboard-style design of the app’s interface reflects the informal, ephemeral nature of its menu. The app connects hungry students with their peers, and gives them the means to organize their own transactions at their own pace. It updates automatically when a supplier is in the vicinity, alerting the user to the arrival of a new source of sustenance. It is up to the cook and the buyer to make their own arrangements to exchange the food; this opportunity for informal interaction helps students to come into contact and engage with one another in a new way, learning about one another’s cuisines and culinary talents in the process.

‘Self Care Service’ provides the infrastructure for students to cater to themselves. This self-service counter guarantees students open and free access to cooking facilities, running hot and cold water, and simple condiments. But with rights come responsibilities: the students must maintain the space and its apparatus. This basic level of hospitality is enhanced with high-tech intelligent components that ensure it runs smoothly. If students try to leave the ‘Self Care Service’ in a mess, the counter comes to life with light effects and a disembodied voice, notifying the user of their blunder. The anthropomorphic counter’s personality results in a kind of social conditioning, both positive and negative. If abandoned, the ‘bad mood’ of the apparatus puts the students under pressure to clean it. On the other hand, if students consistently take good care of the ‘Self Care Service’, they are rewarded with a small amount of credit on their Mensa card. This creates a continued mutual appreciation and respect between the user and the facilities that less ‘smart’ communal kitchens typically lack.