The project ‘Home Kitchen’ investigates in the possibility in integrating living and production system, and attempts to introduce new definition to urban mixed-used typology. The site is bounded by W 128th St and Convent Ave., and is zoned for M1-5 manufacturing / R7A residential. The project aims to utilise architecture as a medium to bridge the zoned programs, creating a mixed-used residential/ food production facility that relates to both zoning criteria.
‘Home Kitchen’ proposes to centralize ammenities/ functions that are essential to both programs, formulating vertical elements that could be shared and used by all the users. The cooking towers can be occupied by food production workers by day, and residents by night. These vertically connected cooking units allows flexibility in adjusting to production capacity, where they could be used collectively for communal scale production or separately for private dining needs. The circulation towers, characterised by the circular stairs and platforms, provide egress means and natural light to the spaces.
The production process is proposed to be modulated on the ground level, offering flexibility in adjusting for schedules of individual food providers and transparency/ accessibility to the public. The residential levels contain bands of living units on the periphery of the floor slabs, where the spaces are divided into different levels of intimacy: private bedroom, in-unit bathroom, in-unit terrace, shared indoor space, shared outdoor terrace. Cooking and other essential functions are provided at the intersection between the horizontal plane and vertical amenity towers. The free plane regards these fixtures, essential to living, as the hearths of the residents’ living activity, and allow them to design their unique modes of engagement where the collective experience is celebrated.
