Culinary art : Design as a recipe

Abstract

My passion for food was how the subject of my thesis was originated. I have always wondered about the connection between food and architecture and how these two distinct disciplines can integrate together. This design thesis investigates the feasibility of using food as a starting point to create architecture. This thesis aims to use culinary art and principles as design methodology in the formation of a foodrelated architecture. Due to the fine and delicate visual presentation of the culinary art of nouvelle cuisine and Japanese cuisine, these culinary styles were described as a “representation of food in a highly sensual matter.”1 Culinary art is an integrated producing process of preparation, cooking and the presentation of food altogether. Be it traditional French patisseries or minimalistic Japanese dessert, the presentation of these culinary styles never ceases to fascinate. Whilst food and shelter are both essential needs in human being’s everyday life, cuisine and architecture are the complex outcomes of those two disciplines. In his article, “Taste in Architecture,” Marco Frascari maintains that architecture and culinary practices follow a similar production procedure. He points out that “The process by which a hut built to house a holy image is refined into a temple […] is the same as by which […] a grilled fowl made into a poulet a la Marengo,” and he suggests that “… both disciplines apply the rule of ‘taste’ to solve their ill-defined problems in a non-trivial manner.”2 The programmatic form is a community of eating spaces relative to the concept of seasonality in Japanese culinary principles. The final design outcome presents an Omakase Cuisine Village of production and consumption by the duck pond in Auckland Domain. A variety of seasonal crops, plants and flowers are proposed to be grown on the grid structure throughout the year, with the harvested goods to be served in the eating spaces. This greenery structure houses a seasonal vegetation garden that changes as the year goes on. The food consumption of the design includes a series of pavilions connected by ramps and pathways across the site, housing a variety of eating spaces such as a teppanyaki & yakitori bar, a quick bites kiosk for takeaway, a dessert pavilion, a café & salad bar and a sushi bar on the duck pond. The programme of these seasonality-driven eating spaces follows the essence of “dining with the unknown”, which is derived from Omakase courses in Japanese culture, allowing the landscape to create an emotional response with the patrons. The thesis draws on ideas from literature reviews and extensive explorations of materials and models. The connections between seasonal ingredients and food characteristics are investigated in tandem to spatial materiality, form, and atmosphere to enhance the dining experiences of patrons in various food spaces. The thesis aims to demonstrate the feasibility of adopting culinary art presentations and principles as research and explorative methodology to design food-related architecture.