CULINARY ART: DESIGN AS A RECIPE

As food and shelter are both daily essentials for humans, cuisine and architecture are their complex outcomes. In Frascari’s article, 'Taste in Architecture', he is determined that architecture and culinary practices follow a similar production procedure: “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”.¹Culinary art is an integrated cookery process of preparation, cooking, and presentation of food; it is a 'representation of food in a highly sensual matter'.²

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 a design methodology in the formation of food-related architecture.

Frascari, “‘Semiotica Ab Edendo," Taste in Architecture,” 6.
Spence and Piqueras-Fiszman, The Perfect Meal: The Multisensory Science of Food and Dining, 3.

Early recipe model explorations of jelly and pasta

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 the Auckland Domain. The seasonal garden proposes to grow crops which reflect seasonal changes. Plants, vegetables and flowers are allocated to different growing grounds around the site area.

The food consumption sector of the design includes a series of eating pavilions connected by ramps and pathways across the site. Each pavilion serves a specific type of cuisine. The programme of these seasonality-driven eating spaces follows the essence of 'dining with the unknown', derived from Omakase courses in Japanese culture, to allow the landscape to create an emotional response among the patrons.