Designer aims to ‘disrupt the system’ by integrating wild elements back into cities
Story of oil is a story of disconnection from one another, natural world: Fritz Haeg
Thursday January 28, 2010 -- Michelle Strutzenberger
TORONTO - With a vision of disrupting the structure of today’s urban environments, Fritz Haeg has grown eight front-yard edible gardens in various U.S. cities.

“For me the project is not about growing food, not about lawns, it’s not about gardens. It’s about the easiest first wedge into disrupting the system and into unravelling the structure of our cities,” the Los Angeles-based architect, artist and landscape designer said in a recent presentation.

Haeg was one of 10 leading designers who spoke at the Toronto Interior Design show’s inaugural Conversations in Design symposium, which focused this year on imagining a world without oil.

“I think the story of oil is a story of disconnection,” said Haeg, pointing out how society divides itself into various spaces — food production in one area, living in isolated units in another — creating what he described as a series of “sick, unnatural, twisted” mono cultures.

Growing edible gardens on the front lawn — a privately-owned yet public space —is a step in regrowing those connections and beginning a chain reaction of change, said Haeg.

“When you go down the street and you see someone who’s growing food on their front lawn, which, in America, is crazy, I realize, hopefully the whole structure of the city starts to unravel and fall apart.

“Because you realize ‘Oh, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing there.’And maybe all of the other ridiculous antiquated habits that we live with every day and take for granted start to come into question and it will lead to a chain reaction of thought, and hopefully participation.”

The designer proposed that incorporating food production into the fabric of daily life is especially crucial for a society that has rendered this largely invisible.

Haeg has also begun a project which involves reintroducing select wild animals back into cities, again with a view to provoking new thinking around how people live in the spaces they’ve inherited from previous generations.

“All these projects are meant to be reflective. They’re always meant to turn it back on ourselves,” said Haeg.

To learn more about Haeg’s work, visit www.fritzhaeg.com.

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