COMMON RECIPE ACADEMIC

Course

Capstone Design Studio 6

Professor

Alison Mears, Emily Moss Partner

Kohki Hiramatsu

Location

11408 Wedgewood Dr, Austin, TX 78753, United States

FOOD AS NON-VERBAL LANGUAGE

The recent influx of immigrants at the US-Mexico border has brought a multitude of health concerns due to the difficult journey and harsh conditions in detention facilities. This project introduces new approachs towards immagrants’ settlements, addressing the health and social challenges through welcoming centers, community centers, and housing units. By inheriting Austin’s diverse culture, the program focuses on building a community that is welcoming, inclusive, and supportive through a “Common Recipe“ among all race, language and ethnicity. This “Common Recipe“ recognizes food as one of the essential elements that prospers health, connects communities, and inherits one’s cultural identity. The program puts emphasize on communal cooking, communal dining, food growing, and food sharing among the immigrant and local communities. The experience of food is inseparable from the solution towards health and social issues of the immigrants.

The program guides the immigrants at the moment of arrival, welcoming them, providing food, settling information, walking through communal facilities, supplying basic needs such as healthcare and permanent address etc.

Site Context

The site is located in North East Austin, Texas. This existing location is a forested land designated for affordable housing. The North and East side are two stories residential housing, the South and West side are light-use commercial area. Interstate 35 highway connects Austin with the Mexican border, which then is one of the prominent route for immigrants to travel from Latin American countries to United States. The site sits on the East side of Interstate 35, which serves as a first contact point for the immagrants.

Welcoming Center Section

Welcoming Center Floor Plan

Upon Arrival

The welcoming center is the first contact point of the immigrants. The welcoming hall is connected to a bus stop which serves the interstate 35 highway. The immigrants who gets off the bus would receive food, water, immediate supplies, and information of settling down.

The welcoming center is a rather public area which includes cafetera, pharmacy, grocery, delivery-pickup spot, tenants and public bathroom. This space is shared between the surrounding neighborhood and the immigrants’ community. The grocery provides dirrect fresh vegetables, meats, and daily essentials which lacked on the site.

For The Community

The community center locates in the center of the site. It is a more private area where the programs serves the immigrant community. The emphasis is placed on the central kitchen, which sits next to the farmland, and bridges the childcare center and commal dining hall. The food is being harvested in the local farmland, and the central kitchen is for prepping daily meals for the immigrant community and the children. The kitchen has an open layout which can incorporate cooking lessons.

Residential Units

Affordable Housing

The residential units are composed of modular prefabricated units. Due to the changing numbers of immigrants, the prefab system can allow expansion of the affordable apartments in the future. Each residential unit will share a common first floor, with common laundry, kitchen, mailroom etc. There are also storefront layouts for family who wants to start a business.

Food And Sustainable Living

The residential buildings include prefabricated storefront, micro-unit, studio, one bedroom, two bedroom, and three bedroom units. Each apartment unit has the layout, with extra seatings for gathering and food sharing among famileis, friends, and neighbors. Besides the emphasis on food, the building also focus the use of cork (insulation/facade) and clt construction for each module, as a net-zero carbon, biogenic, scalable approaches toward future residential buildings.