Food, architecture and experience design anna marie fisker and tenna doktor olsen

Food, Architecture and Experience Design
Anna Marie Fisker and Tenna Doktor Olsen
Nordic Journal of Architectural Research Volume 20, No 1, 2008, 12 pages Nordic Association for Architectural Research Anna Marie Fisker and Tenna Doktor Olsen Department of Architecture and Design, Aalborg University, Denmark TOPIC: DESIGNING THE EXPERIENCE CITY

Abstract: The paper explores how performativeelements of an architectural-food based approach can be used to generate new experience-related spaces in the future city, putting a focus on the creation of social bonds and citizen relations by means of temporary public meal events and small-scale food activities. With the overall subject of designing the future experience cities, our initiate goal have therefore been to try to point out some ofthe parameters used in the interplay between food and architecture to create new food-related experiences and to examine the subject of the meal and food as an “experience-related-system” possibly initiating social relations. The purpose of this approach has been potentially to contribute to illuminate a wide range of needs and undiscovered possibilities within the interrelated field of design,architecture and food; ranging from interior functions, building design, and cityscapes to industrial design and performative activities of the city. Reconsidering the public spaces of the city from the perspective of an architectural-food based approach implicit demands for an understanding of the inherited relations between the fields of respectively architectural design and culinary arts. As suchthe first part of the paper outlines considerations on contemporary food experiences based on two restaurant experiences and a

historical study investigating the utilization of architecture and design relative to creating spectacular meal experiences, having a higher purpose of developing social relations and supporting cultural development. Relative hereto, second part of the paper proposes toutilize the performative and sensuous elements of cooking in an architectural-food based approach as means to generate temporary food domains in the city, inviting for sensuous and explorative meal experiences further serving a cultural and social encouragement among citizens. Taking our point of departure in two specific cases developed at the Institute of Architecture and Design at AalborgUniversity, we will argue that small-scale urban experiments are needed. With the two cases we further seek to illustrate how chefs in collaboration with architectural designers methodically engage in the work of experience design within a new “sphere” of total-design, and how a combination of performative experiences, food, plate, and room possibly can initiate social relations in public spaces.Keywords: performative architecture, food design, experience city, food history

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Introduction
Today we witness a time where food and meals move toward performative experiences and where food and meals to a greater extent are social events drifting from the space of the dinner table into the domains of the city. - A perfectly shaped sphere, yet frizzing from the meeting of cold with warm.Hovering above ingenious geometrical shapes and accompanied by coloured foam, it lures a unification of aesthetic and gustatory taste, and contributes to a unique and spectacular meal experience. This futuristic strawberry sorbet designed by the MOTO restaurant in New York is just one among several new developments within the contemporary culinary trend; Molecular Gastronomy. The USA is, however,not the only country experimenting, and during the last few years a still growing amount of the world’s hippest restaurants have gained an interest in the molecular culinary field, and as we will argue, the fields of food- and experience related design. Today we further witness a time where the ordinary meal reaches out towards new spectacular experiences. Where the meal and food to a greater...