丨美国哥伦布丨MASS Design Group

Exhibit Columbus Biennial

Project Data

Full Team

Year 2019

Status Completed

Size 10,000 sq ft

Location Columbus, Indiana, United States

Partners Exhibit Columbus

Collaborators ESL Spectrum, Elizabeth Woolf, Bartholomew County FFA Organizations, Black Jewel Popcorn

Photographer Hadley Fruits

Focus areas Conservation & Regeneration, Parks & Public Spaces

Services Exhibits & Interpretation, Landscape Architecture, Research & Publishing

Project Team Justin Brown, Nadyeli Quiroz, Caitlin Taylor, Annie Wang

Full Team

Project Team Justin Brown, Nadyeli Quiroz, Caitlin Taylor, Annie Wang

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Corn / Meal was designed as a space for people to form a direct, meaningful relationship with their food system, cultivating food literacy through the act of sharing a meal at a communal table.

Nearly 25% of Indiana’s surface area is devoted to corn production, yet few people understand why it’s grown, what it’s used for, or where it ends up. In 2019, MASS collaborated with Exhibit Columbus to create this installation at Central Middle School in Columbus, Indiana. Featuring Indiana’s iconic corn landscape, the project highlighted the fact that only about 1% of corn grown in the U.S. is consumed by humans in a relatively unprocessed form.

The planted landscape was a legible reflection of industrial corn production, proportionally representing its primary uses. For example, 46% of all corn grown in the country is used for animal feed, while 30% is used for ethanol production.

Serving as a cross-disciplinary teaching tool, the landscape was integrated into the school’s curriculum, supporting lessons in pollination and germination, art, literature, and consumer science. The design emphasized seasonal change, allowing students and visitors to witness the corn’s life cycle as a daily reminder of our connection to the natural world.

At the heart of the installation was a reimagined picnic table—an iconic symbol of shared meals—adapted for a variety of uses, from informal student gatherings to classroom instruction and community events. The inclusive, accessible, and modular tablescape supported a wide range of reconfigurable programs and interactions.