Today, more than ever, open-plan kitchens fit our modern informal lifestyles. By breaking down walls we get open-plan spaces that provide a natural hub and greater sociability during cooking and prepping in our homes.
What if, in our cities, we broke down the walls between our kitchens and our neighbourhoods? What if we provided all the components of an open-plan kitchen (sink, counter, cooker, refuse storage, dining space) to facilitate a shared community kitchen in our public spaces? We propose a new type of public space with access to public cooking equipment, where users may act as both providers of resources or obtainers of resources, responding to the primary need to be sociable by eating together. Every day, recipes from different cultures can be shared and sampled forging new relationships to create a more diverse and open society. Architecture cannot control human behaviour but sometimes has the potential to inspire human interaction without the need of a screen.
The open kitchen would encourage people but especially communities to ‘come to the city table’ together again.
The service responds to the primary need to be sociable by eating together. Participants bring their own food and cooking utensils and prepare a meal, or book the entire space for a seminar, a class or a large gathering of friends or family.
The open kitchens would be located in select public spaces in our cities, a park, a square or in front of a municipal building. The proposition shown sits in front of the MAXXI in Rome. A sheltered outdoor space where new recipes from different cultures can be shared and sampled every day forging new relationships to create a more diverse and open society.
