Dining Project Spring 2011

The dining experience project was intended to create a space for people to gather and have a ritual dining experience while supporting world hunger, and bringing awareness to hunger in order to have a positive affect on those affected by it. 

I saw the most important focus of this project was around the idea of preventing hunger and less about designing something beautiful. Instead, I thought it was more about designing something less costly and more practical but at the same time making it a nice experience for the people attending. I thought it was important to keep the design cost efficient because in order to have an impact on world hunger and spread knowledge of it, there must be multiple locations where this event is held so that many different types of people could attend and also so that there would be a lot of awareness of the event and what it is about.

I chose Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as my location for the event because it is a larger city in South America where there is high crime, and a lot of poverty. When I have visited there in the past I have seen many children and families on the street searching for food. Because of its location, I chose bamboo as  the structural material for the space. It is prevalent in this area so it cost less to build and more money can go towards food costs and feeding a larger number of people. I chose large windows on the North and East side of the building because this is where the sun during the winter months where it is still warm, but not as hot will come through and in the summer it will not shine through as strong. 

I planned for these dining areas to be located directly along the street with other businesses so that anyone walking by can see that it is there and attend. This would act as a form of media because it would  tell people about the event and they would see exactly where it is.

The actual space where dining takes place is 18 by 20 to allow room for a large table for more people to attend and for circulation and extra space for a larger amount of people. That way it will not be too hot or  cramped. 

This is a model of my table and sideboard design. It is simple to go along with the design of the structure and also made of a bamboo wood