Food Trucks of the Future May Include Wings and Dining Pods

Grid View

• "The Dunkin' Donuts Truck provides LA commuters with fresh donut and coffee delivery directly to their vehicle while waiting in traffic, all without leaving the comfort of ones vehicle." By Lynn Kim
• By Lynn Kim
• By Lynn Kim
• "The Sushi Pod allows for private intimate dining while hovering over the urban sidewalks and admiring the sushi preparation inside the truck below." By Jee-Ae Kim
• By Marcus Cheng
• "The self-sufficient Mobile Water Truck spreads its wings to collect, filter and store rain water in exterior bladders and delivers it to people in times of crisis and need." By Marcus Cheng
• "The Teppenyaki Truck turns the art of food preparation into a communal event to be enjoyed while waiting, lounging or watching sports." By Scott Baik
• By Scott Baik
• "The flexible skin of the Mozzarella Mobile expands and slides open to provide space for tasting and sampling 3 varieties of mozzarella whether to sit and stay or take away." By Vikki Chan
  
• By Vikki Chan
• "The Garden Lab visits urban LA neighborhoods teaching and implementing skills in composting, planting, and hand-tooled construction techniques to encourage community participation." By Susie Loewenstein

What will the food truck of the future look like? This semester, Jennifer Siegal of the Office of Mobile Design taught a topic studio for USC architecture undergrads called "Generation Mobile: Exploring the Deployable, 'Free-Range Cuisine' Truck Culture" with goal of finding out. Her students met chefs, mobile business owners, suppliers, and community activists and explored the "burgeoning food truck ubiquitous with the mobile Los Angeles culture."

Since it was an architecture class, it was about the "possibilities of portable structures and mobile environments from which to draw from." And for a final project, the students designed their own future-looking food trucks. One of the imagined trucks included wings (not to fly, but to "collect, filter and store rain water" in times of crisis). Another truck (a Dunkin Donut truck, no less) is situated above cars stuck in traffic, delivering donuts and coffee to passengers below. And one truck offered hovering dining pods for privacy.

According to Curbed LA, the work will be exhibited at the Border Grill in downtown Los Angeles starting today, Tuesday, December 14. But if you can't make it, do check out the slideshow above.

· Generation Mobile: Exploring the Deployable, 'Free-Range Cuisine' Truck Culture [pdf course syllabus]
· Office of Mobile Design [Official Site]