Table rules : reprogramming dead or under-used space through the intervention of food and architecture

Abstract

The intention of this dissertation is to reprogramme dead or underused urban space in order to create an interactive economic and educational facility. This is achieved by the use of food and architecture acts as the catalysts which activates the dead or underused space. The growth and expansion of cities are uncontrollable, the border between urban and landscape becomes increasingly unclear. Architecture becomes an exhibition of the proposed interventions, between urban and landscape. An existing parking lot in the Pretoria CBD is used to prove that, if an architectural intervention is attached to the existing urban fabric, a space were people can interact and experience the city can be activated. This is a place where the ritual of food and of architecture can be explored. This project revolves around the debate over the impact of the ritual of eating and how architecture is an ingredient in the ritual of eating. The design borrows from the predominant principles of the chef to satisfy the hunger of consumers. The project responds to the context, the conscious and the subconscious. Like a meal, a poem, or a piece of music, it aims to create a feast for the senses.