Project description

The project aims to enhance community cohesion and change the current unsustainable management of food waste. The continued arrival of large groups of visitors and international students into Edinburgh has made many communities into temporary settlements. With large communities made up of individuals or families with loose or fragmented relationships, each one is an island. There is a need to stabilise neighbourhoods and to create transitional spaces between home and public space: a community space. The project uses the design of interior spaces to generate warm neighbourhoods and promote wider communication and understanding between different cultures, creating a sense of community belonging.

Bringing families and individuals together, my project explores a community food space which gives a chance to change the situation of nearly expired food, accelerate food consumption and reduce food waste through a series of instructional cooking activities in the community kitchen, where an open atmosphere of and generosity in sharing will be established.

Existing building structural model

The project is located in 129 Fountainbridge in the city centre of Edinburgh. The building was constructed in the new millennium and boasts a well-maintained, modern design with a sturdy steel frame structure.

Model making process
Ground floor model
First floor model
Main space concept

My project site used to exist as part of the Edinburgh Union Canal in history, but later the canal gradually declined due to the replacement of its transportation function by railways. My project site, as part of the Edinburgh Quay Millennium Revival Plan, is a new development of the canal in the new era. I use this interesting section of canal history as my source of spatial ideas.

YUM+ME Concept idea of the main space
Concept development

The canal and the flowing water remind me of an ancient traditional custom in my hometown of Zhejiang, China, which is called '曲水流觞'. A winding stream party (Chinese: 曲水流觞) is an old Chinese custom in which the participants wait by a winding stream and compose poems before their cups full of rice wine float down to reach them. It was popularized by Wang Xizhi, and dates back as far as 353; poems composed at this event were recorded in Wang's famous work, the Lantingji Xu.

My project aims to encourage people to do community cooking activities to consume food that is going to waste, so I come up the idea to replace the wine in the ‘曲水流觞‘ with a recipe. The cards with recipes will be waterproof and can be washed and reused, while the community can leave their favourite recipes to share with the rest of the community through this indoor canal.

 

Concept development
Canal table sketch

In the development process of this "canal" idea, it gradually evolved into a combination of dining, bar, and reception.

Canal table concept sketch
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