My very late brief...

Braden Keir S3107876

Dining Experience Brief - Communal Kitchen

Background

A few weeks ago, I attended an alternative lifestyle festival called ‘Confest’. At this festival there was system of cooking and dining in which a kitchen and pantry were set up where everyone could come together and with or for their friends and also complete strangers. The pantry was stocked with food that donated by people at the festival or bought with donated money. This allowed for a very diverse range of food available that reflected the tastes of the people using the kitchen.

By cooking with a bunch of strangers, you are able to relate those people in a way that you wouldn’t usually experience, and through collaborating with other people with different backgrounds and experiences, all parties are able to learn from each other and add their influence to the meal.

Concept

For this project I hope to design a communal kitchen for inner Melbourne. This would be a space where people could come together to prepare and share food. Anyone arriving at the kitchen would be able to start a new meal, assist in preparing someone else’s meal, or share a meal that someone else has prepared. Anyone starting a meal would be asked to cook more than enough for people they arrived with so that other people could share their meal as well.

Ideally it would be free to use, and all food would be donated by participants (however probably isn’t feasible and there may need to be either an entry free or a compulsory donation).

The target audience for this kitchen would be just about everyone from kids making themselves afternoon tea after school, to families going out to lunch, young adults out to meet new people. With help from the local council it could also play the role of a soup kitchen for the homeless.

Possibly Difficulties

When placed in the city, this communal kitchen concept runs into serval problems which will need to be designed around.

Firstly, there’s hygiene. There are currently very strict standards that must be adhered to when preparing food. When you allow the general public into the kitchen, its very difficult to make sure these standards are maintained.

Next there’s the issue of trust. Outside of a festival context, you can no longer assume that everyone is friendly. Some kind of security measures would be necessary to prevent the possibility of intentional poisoning.

Then there are finances. While it would be lovely if this project was run and maintained by the good will of the local community, this probably isn’t feasible. Staff would be necessary to assure the kitchen is run safely responsible and respectfully. There is also the likely situation that not enough people would donate food or money to the kitchen.