One Lovely Hour: Food as Culture; Food as Memory

Amanda Huynh, ahuynh16@pratt.edu

Industrial Design

One Lovely Hour is an ongoing research project working between Amanda Huynh, assistant professor of industrial design at Pratt Institute, and Ranee Lee, associate professor of industrial design at OCADU in Toronto. The project investigates the form, color, and textures of culturally appropriate food in long-term care, particularly for older adults with dementia. The project was first presented at the Dementia Lab Conference in Leuven, Belgium, in September 2022 and most recently exhibited at DesignTO, Toronto’s annual design festival in January 2023.

We designed a bowl plate that addressed specific needs for meal service in a care-home setting, with features like lips to aid in scooping for people with limited dexterity, and segments for portion control. The plates were realized through ideation, 3D modeling, 3D printing rendering, and 3D printing by Pratt graduate assistant Charlotte Reiter, MID ’24, and then translated into molds and slipcast by an Ontario fabricator. These were a part of an exhibition at DESIGNwith, a design and social practice incubator, and a part of a pop-up dining experience we organized. Each participant was able to take home a custom ceramic plate to continue the conversation on culture, memory, and dignity in aging.