Architecture as an event: Students have built a mobile community kitchen
At the end of September and beginning of October, a three-day
student workshop entitled ‘The Last Dinner Party’ took place at the Planýrka
urban laboratory, led by Kateřina Singer and Marek Hlavička from FA BUT in collaboration with
Julian Hees and Diego Mello Jeremias from the Berlin-based studio Urban
Catalyst. The workshop offered a perspective on architecture not as a finished
building, but as a process, an event and a tool for creating social connections
in public space.
Photo: FA BUT
Over the course of three days, the students were tasked with
understanding the specific character of the Planýrka site, mapping its
potential and proposing an intervention that would respond to the location.
Instead of designing a permanent structure, they focused on the theme of
‘architecture of events’ – that is, creating situations capable of activating
the space and encouraging people to come together. A community kitchen was
chosen as the main medium, becoming a natural hub for collaborative work, cooking
and sharing.
The result was a mobile kitchen built on a simple structure
mounted on wheels. It featured a large roll of fabric which, once moved to the
chosen location, was unrolled to form a lightweight canopy whilst also
providing a space for people to sit and for the prepared food to be served. The
students worked in several teams, each focusing on the design and construction
of the structure, logistics, the transport of materials and the preparation of
the community menu.
Photo: FA BUT
A communal dinner in the meadow behind the Královo Pole Shopping Centre marked the culmination of several days of intensive work.
However, the project did not end with the meal itself. The final part of the
workshop was the ceremonial return of the kitchen to the faculty, which
transformed the journey through the city into a performative event. The
temporary structure thus became a means of creating a new experience of public
space and demonstrated that architecture can function not only as a physical object
but also as a tool for connecting people and creating shared experiences.
At the same time, the ‘The Last Dinner Party’ workshop confirmed the significance of Planýrka as an experimental urban laboratory, where new approaches to working with the city, the landscape and the community can be tested through temporary interventions and participatory activities.
| Inserted by: | Rychnovská Anna Mgr. |
|---|---|
| Inserted | |
| Last updated |