Studio finalised virtually through Zoom and group work: JULY 2020-NOVEMBER 2020
“If the city street is a place of random encounter, of hustle and protest, the kitchen is a place of intimate habit, of
sharing and aroma. Emotional distance is routine on the street, but excruciating in the kitchen.”
Robin Kelsey, Aperture 223, 2016
A Seat at the Table explores the role of student housing as a site to construct collectivity, using food as a
vehicle for students to express culture and identity. The studio uses the kitchen and dining room to
transgress states of isolation while simultaneously subverting pre-established social and spatial
conditions. The kitchen and dining room act as a radical system that blurs the limits between private and
public, domestic and urban and becomes a space for larger political agencies that go beyond cooking and
eating.
The collective kitchen and dining hall typology will be the site of experimental investigation into the
practice of sharing a meal as a strategic spatial tool to redefine the bounds of identity and collectivity
within student housing. The modes of cultivating, preparing and eating food will be interrogated to reveal
attitudes and agendas of larger systems. These are played out through intersecting scales, from the role
of the University, to the human interactions at the dining room table. The performative act of eating and
sharing a meal, together with the choreographies of food preparation will be used to introduce each other
to specificities, tensions and crossovers of culture.
sharing and aroma. Emotional distance is routine on the street, but excruciating in the kitchen.”
Robin Kelsey, Aperture 223, 2016
A Seat at the Table explores the role of student housing as a site to construct collectivity, using food as a
vehicle for students to express culture and identity. The studio uses the kitchen and dining room to
transgress states of isolation while simultaneously subverting pre-established social and spatial
conditions. The kitchen and dining room act as a radical system that blurs the limits between private and
public, domestic and urban and becomes a space for larger political agencies that go beyond cooking and
eating.
The collective kitchen and dining hall typology will be the site of experimental investigation into the
practice of sharing a meal as a strategic spatial tool to redefine the bounds of identity and collectivity
within student housing. The modes of cultivating, preparing and eating food will be interrogated to reveal
attitudes and agendas of larger systems. These are played out through intersecting scales, from the role
of the University, to the human interactions at the dining room table. The performative act of eating and
sharing a meal, together with the choreographies of food preparation will be used to introduce each other
to specificities, tensions and crossovers of culture.
The Recipe is part of introducing the student housing to all residents around the UTS campus
Exterior View of the Market
Interior View of the Student Housing
Illustration of the sense of style of the Market
Shuk Ultimo revolves around the social design aspect of a 70’s pop art culture crossover with Lebanese and Israeli inspired food market on the ground level and multiple floors in between the student housing levels of each building. Creating multiple cultural, colourful and vibrant market alleyways and communal areas for not only the students within the building but also the surrounding community. The structure transitions between the student housing levels and the markets which encapsulates the relationship of food and mixed cultures between the students. The Market floors are elegantly designed with arches as the exterior view and captures a mix of social and cultural functions where students can experience full privacy, and yet be a part of a bigger society/community where relationship bonding happens over food.
Shuk Ultimo revolves around the social design aspect of the Middle Eastern inspired food market on the ground level of each building, creating cultural, colourful and vibrant market alleyways. This forms multiple communal areas for not only the students within the building but also the surrounding community. The structure then transforms into the student housing which encapsulates the relationship of food and mixed cultures between the students. Shuk Ultimo offers a mix of social and cultural functions where students can experience full privacy whilst living in a rich, vibrant communal atmosphere in the city of Sydney.
The three student housing buildings provide a contemporary lifestyle in a vernacular Mediterranean-inspired building design which welcomes students of any cultural, social, or racial background.
