Food has shaped the city, and in turn, the city the food we eat. In a time when large scale urban development has slowed down leaving empty units, and oil prices are consistently rising we are asked to reassess where we get our food from, how we grow it, and also the types of food we eat.
Service is a new restaurant, food lab, and plant nursery, dedicated to researching new culinary, community, and growing interventions.
Becoming not only a space for dining, but for meeting, relaxing, and socializing. Catering for a diverse community the program is devised to be open and approachable. Located in one of the many unfinished empty shell units of the city its architecture aims to influence the space with as light a touch as possible. Using lightweight materials coupled with in house fabrication, and local trades and expertise this new community space hopes to foster a new, diverse, and green image of the city.
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INTENT - To develop a strategy, program, and design language for an easily fabricated eating and growing ‘lab’. This means developing a simple, exciting and captivating economic strategy or business plan/image/menu; one which will incorporate diverse members of the community and draw in visitors. It is hoped it will help in the further development of a well knit, integrated and growing neighbourhood.
- Having decided on the type of program we will have to decide how to allow these decisions influence the design. The main design strategies are to simply finish the current surfaces with an ecologically friendly ‘light’ touch, pinpoint and propose solutions to safety, access, and facilities (satisfying bldg regs), develop a seating plan/bar kitchen layout and a lighting, from accessible, easily fabricated and sensitive materials, with skills local to the site.
- The buildings program is the DNA of the building, and should be the main focus with the seating arrangement, kitchen, food stores, WC’s, and lighting form being directly generated by it. The program for a project like this to be successful is one which integrates the nature of the a growing/eating experience (small tables at large distances = couples, sitting down for a long time, eating expensive things in hushed tones; large tables closer spaced = chatting groups, faster eating, more people, cheaper food), the location of the services, and building regs. Once we have decided the type of layout and design we envision, these layouts can be solved using an ‘evolutionary algorithm’ called Galápagos; this will quickly find the ‘healthiest’ layout by iterating possible designs 2 or 3 times a second and measuring each designs suitability (I’d be happy to show anyone in the group who is interested this program how to use it).
GOALS - To analyse and overcome the problems associated with the site (access, footfall, integrating a diverse community), in a simple business strategy and building program. - Keeping design to an absolute minimum, simple and beautiful partition walls at strategic locations for WC, food storage, KP (washing up); places to link cooking/prep counters into the services; a seating plan; absolutely necessary surface finish details such as a concrete polished floor; a lighting strategy, lighting forms that feed from/hide the services, and at points will incorporate extraction/ventilation. - Presentation which describes a design which tries to incorporate the community at large, a democracy in design: a community orientated space.
OUTPUT BY 10.2.11 - Introduction Page (Name/Logo/Diagram of Design Influence - Floor Plan - Site Model - Lighting Detail / Experiential Section - Lighting Model (3d Printer maybe?) - 2 x 3d Render/Montage -
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