From storing to store

Following the roots of the term «store» reveals the connection of storing with, be firm, restoring, building, and ultimately the place where goods are kept for sale. (1)

Along the chain, food travels through different climatic zones. Microclimates are not only important for the growth of plants, but also for the storage of food in specific climatic conditions. Storage spaces from granaries to earth cellars passively use the environmental conditions in the best possible way to extend the shelf life of food and were central elements in the development of society and architecture. The incorporation of the form of the storage into the monument of the temple as Marot describes Peschkens analysis of the doric order reveals a different perspective on monuments. (2) At the birth of modernity Silos also played a decisive role. The transformation of the Bunge y Born Grain Silo in Buenos Aires, from a decorated silo in the yearbook of the Deutscher Werkbund to a manifestation of Le Corbusier‘s theory in L‘Esprit Nouveau, shows the change in the conception of monuments. As Stanislaus von Moos points out, the images were manicured for recycling, and served as a background to Le Corbusier‘s definition of architecture «the masterly, correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light» (3)

The architecture of the storage transformed from a vernacular project with low energy consumption to a high climatic machine in form of a huge box. Compulsory stocks for important foodstuffs in various private silos are set up in Switzerland. Due to the relatively low level of self-sufficiency in Switzerland, these are planned for supply in the event of a crisis. (4) In addition, the BWL recommends that emergency stocks be kept in every household. Together with nationwide coverage of air-raid shelters, in private basements as well as collective facilities, the food supply in the event of a crisis is planned by the state. (5) In the 70ies even a detailed visualized vision of how to live in the bunker cellars called «Das Leben im Schutzraum» was published. (6)

In a broader sense, not only the buildings such as silos and earth cellars were structures of storage. The animals themselves could be seen as stores of food for times of need. Animals, therefore, played a much greater role in the survival of mankind than they do today. The processing and preservation of food, canning fermenting to cheese, were other passive storage strategies that transformed and defined the diet.

Natural ice was for a long time a means of preserving food. In pre-industrial times, ice cellars, which used the constant temperatures of the earth, were used to store natural products. The icebox reached the city in the mid-19th century and survived for a century before refrigerators ushered in the technical refrigeration revolution. Zurich architect Ernst Zietzschmann reflected in 1949: «Who doesn‘t remember the ice wagons pulled by mighty brewers‘ horses, in which the delicious-looking white sticks lay, wandering into the insatiable bellies of our refrigerated cellars and cabinets? Or who remembers the times when the pieces of ice were sawn out of the ice cover of our lakes in winter? The refrigerators in which these ice blocks disappeared were unfortunately quite unclean fellows in most cases: Rotten wood, musty smell, water, and bacteria characterized these installations from our parents‘ times.»(7)

Today‘s Eisgasse reminds of the ice cellar that once was located in Aussersihl to keep goods cool when there was no refrigerators jet. (8) The invention of the refrigerator at the end of the 19th century changed how to store goods completely. America counted as a pioneer of refrigeration. On the one hand, there has always been the interest of the military in food storage, on the other hand, the settlement of inhospitable desert areas in the west was dependent on external food supply.(9)

As the ice and icebox, community refrigeration units, are part of a short episode in refrigeration history. These small structures in form of containers or small huts offered space for bigger amounts of food and «Freezing instead of boiling down» was promoted. Nowadays, single facilities in villages can be found. Urban cooperatives such as Kalkbreite adopted the idea and also offer cooperatively managed cooling facilities questioning the position of the supermarket. (10)

Preserved food and its storage lost its meaning to the point that nowadays people use the supermarket as their pantry. As Susan Paham pointed out «Although supermarkets can be traced back to the 1930s in the United States, it was in the 1940s and 1950s that these stores became ubiquitous, growing alongside car-based suburbs, and reflecting technological innovations in freezing, food packaging, and domestic refrigeration. As Ellickson notes, ‘the post-war boom was a period of steady growth for the supermarket industry.» (11) «The nature of that food shopping process also changed. techniques like self-service, which were to become a basic attribute of the supermarket’s cash and carry offer, had their seeds in nineteenth-century innovations in packaging, such as canning and bottling, that long predated the growth of the supermarket as a pre-eminent retail form and helped lead to the dominance of chain stores from the 1930s onwards.» (11)

The separation of the consumer not only from the place of production and the farmer but also from the place of storage and preservation, as an act of caring, reveals a wider facet of the development of food to a commodity.

(1) - Etymonline , visited 28.04.2021
(2) - Taking the Country's Side: Agriculture and Architecture, Sébastien Marot, 2019 p.21
(3) - S. Von Moos, Le Corbusier: Elements of a Synthesis, revised and expanded edition, Rotterdam 2009, p. 58/60
(4) - Reserve Suisse, Reservesuisse , visited 28.04.2021
(5) - Notvorrat, BWL , visited 28.04.2021
(6) - Alboth, Herbert, Das Leben im Schutzraum, Zivilschutz 1974, Heft 5, p.135, E-Periodica  
(7) - Kühlschrank und Küche, E. Zietzschmann, Dipl.Arch. SIA Zürich, Bauen + Wohnen 1-5 (1947-1949) Heft 5, E-Periodica
(8) - Gang dur Züri, Eisgasse, https://duerst-online.ch/turicum/strassen/e/eisgasse/eisgasse.html visited 28.04.2021
(9) - Andritzky, Michael. Oikos - von der Feuerstelle zur Mikrowelle : Haushalt und Wohnen im Wandel. Giessen: Anabas Verlag, 1992. Print. P.239
(10) - Wo eines der letzten Gefrierhäuse überlebt hat, Tagesanzeiger Martin Huber, 03.11. 2020, Online: Tagesanzeiger, visited 28.04.2021
(11) - Parham, Susan. Food and Urbanism  : the Convivial City and a Sustainable Future. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. Print. p.141


images
1 - Granaries Soajo, Galicia Rudofsky 1964, Tryglyphs Peschken Teple of Poseidon, Paestum, 1990, in Taking the Country's Side: Agriculture and Architecture, Sébastien Marot, 2019 p.21
2 - Bunge y Born grain Silo, Buenos Aires in Werkbund Jahrbuch 1913, Le Corbusier revision in L'Esprit Nouveau 1919, in S. Von Moos, Le Corbusier: Elements of a Synthesis, revised and expanded edition, Rotterdam 2009, p. 58/60
3 - Massenlagerung von Kartoffeln, Eigenmann, A, 1944, http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-53989
4 - Google Streetview, https://www.google.com/maps/@47.1759535,8.1002192,3a,86.4y,32.53h,76.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAOxU3Dq7VcQdOpkrv9Qlhg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 (visited 29.04.2021)
5 - Notvorrat, Neukomm + Pinschewer, 1966 https://poster-gallery.com/de/shop/view_product/Neukomm-Pinschewer-Notvorrat-162403
7 - Eisernte für die Schützengarten-Brauerei am Mannenweier auf Dreilinden, um 1890. (Bild: Archiv Schützengarten) https://www.tagblatt.ch/kultur/ein-eiskaltes-geschaeft-ld.920095
8 - Eisgasse 10, E. Conrad, 1888, Baugeschichtliches Archiv der Stadt Zürich https://baz.e-pics.ethz.ch/#1619653048133_4
10 - The Ladies Home Journal, February 1927
15 - Raisa Durandi, Tagesanzeiger 03.11.20 https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wo-eines-der-letzten-tiefkuehlhaeuser-ueberlebt-hat-661404972060
17 - Lebensmittelverein Zürich (LVZ), S21_45_Sozarch_F_5033-Nb-079, https://data.stadt-zuerich.ch/dataset/sozialarchiv-lvz