Weaving Through Walls: Culinary Institute

Two-Person Team Project with Jiapei Wang

Fall 2022 Poiesis III Studio

Software: Rhino, Illustrator, PS, V-ray, Enscape, Indesign

Professor: Laura Garofalo Instructor: Charlie Schmidt

This is an 11000 sq. ft culinary institute located at Frick Park in Pittsburgh for chef Niki Nakayama. Our main concept is breaking the boundaries and mixing indoor and outdoor spaces, fusing architecture with the landscape to guide people closely experiencing kaiseki’s cooking process by dividing the teaching kitchen into four specific kitchens, sashimi, grill, steam, and fried. And we have a shared central place engaging all kitchens and other areas, creating a place for people to gather and enjoy.

Early Research

We choose Niki Nakayama as our chef, and she is the only female kaiseki chef in the world. She makes modern dishes inspired by ancient, multicourse Japanese meals. Her core philosophy in cooking is about balancing simple food ingredients to create a new taste, and she tried to incorporate American modern flavor into traditional kaiseki meals to create her style.

We also analyzed the site conditions around Frick Park, gaining a comprehensive understanding of its urban layout and climatic characteristics. These insights provide a crucial foundation for our future design, ensuring it harmonizes with the surrounding environment and addresses local challenges effectively. By integrating this knowledge, we aim to create a design that is both contextually relevant and sustainable.

Field Drawing and Model

We were tasked with creating a field drawing. By extracting components from the Longhouse and Ladakh house plans, we developed a detailed drawing and constructed a model.

Field Models

Programming Strategy

Our group utilized several diagrams to analyze programming and visitor circulation.

Adjacency Diagram

Space Relationship

Hierarchy

Massing Strategy

Technical Drawings

Site Plan & Site Section

The strategy we use is that we have two main elements in our design, which are heavy vertical walls and light projecting elements, which are the roofs. We link them together in relation to the biome, directing water, and air and creating shelter. Roofs, walls, and different types of screens interlock with each other, derived from the idea of the field model, creating many in-between and transitional areas.

Floor Plans

On the top level, we planned the classrooms and lecture halls, and the two entrances that leads to two different routes. The first one is the entrance for visitors, people come in from a trail embedded in the terrain. Visitors will follow a route with a more complete experience inside of the school, as they can follow the corridors and visit café, community room, kitchens, and the outdoor spaces. The other entrance is for students, and they will enter from an entrance on the left, following a route that leads them directly towards classrooms and kitchens.

Surrounding the café are the four main kitchens that we planned, which are Sashimi Kitchen, Grilled Kitchen, Steamed Kitchen, and Fried Kitchen. These themes are derived from the philosophy of our chef Niki, as she serves the food in this order to create a better experience for customers. On the right side is mainly the outdoor spaces and the loading area. We planned a garden area with four steps going down, and platforms extruding outwards into the forest, plants can gradually grow on it, and the platform also creates places for chilling under the trees.

Section

Diagrams

Circulation Diagram

Along the route, we designed the movable glass walls to allow two different ways of crossing the space. In summer the walls will be open and people can enjoy more fresh air; in winter these walls will be closed to protect people from the cold.

Exploded Axonometric

Shows detailed kitchen and how landscape is incorporated into the design, including green roof and outdoor garden.

Water Diagram

Considering that Pittsburgh has a lot of rain, we designed our roof in several types: classic sloped roof, one-sided sloped roof, two-sided sloped roof, butterfly roof and green roof. We want to direct the rain and water in a certain direction and into certain areas. To be more specific, the sloped roof distributes the rain over a wider area, while the butterfly roof collects the water and directs it to one place. As shown in the water diagram, some of the rainwater directed by the roof will land on the green roof, so there will be more natural water collected for plants to grow and the green roof will create a unique landscape and visitor experience. Other water is directed to the landscape in the outdoor space, which could also be used for growing plants.

Sun & Air Diagram

Large, lightweight roofs create a shelter in the summer, protecting people from large amounts of sunlight, while we also create a gap in the hipped roof to let sunlight in. Sloping roofs also help direct airflow, protecting the interior from harsh winds.