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Slow Food Nation Conference Set for San Francisco

The Slow Food Nation conference will draw proponents of sustainable, locally produced food to a 50,000-square-foot festival pavilion at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 8/21/2008 12:00:00 AM

In an intriguing combination of food and architecture, the Slow Food Nation conference settles down in San Francisco from August 29-September 1 within a series of pavilions conceived by a who's-who of Bay Area architects and designers.

Coinciding with San Francisco's month-long Architecture + the City festival, the conference will attract proponents of sustainable, locally produced food to a 50,000-square-foot exhibition space in the city's Fort Mason Center.

Designer Hans Baldauf, principal of Baldauf Catton von Eckartsberg Architects, headed an advisory committee that enlisted 24 local firms to donate their designs for the exhibition venues. Spaces with names like Beer, Olive Oil, and Pickles & Chutney, designed by Randolph Designs, Studio Terpeluk, and Sagan Piechota Architecture, respectively, will be among 15 "tasting" pavilions.

"It is only natural that the Bay Area architecture and design community should be so excited about helping to create the first Slow Food Nation event here in the United States," says Baldauf. "The Slow Food Movement provides an ethical and cultural dimension to the complex issues of sustainability that are on the forefront of the challenges that we are confronting as designers."

Sponsored by non-profit Slow Food USA, the conference will also host a marketplace at the San Francisco Civic Center that will feature 60 California farmers and an outdoor food bazaar, an addendum of sorts to the 10,000-square-foot organic Victory Garden that was installed in the plaza in front of City Hall in July.

"In the end, Slow Food really isn't just about the food. It's about community, craft [and] collaboration," says advisory committee member Allison Arieff. "The bringing together of all these amazing architects, designers, artisans, and alchemists to create what will truly be a feast for all senses and sensibilities."

From top: Renderings of the Charcuterie pavilion by Cary Bernstein Architect and the Fish pavilion by Marta Fry Landscape Associates.

Renderings courtesy of Slow Food USA.