Utilizing fine dining as a vehicle for research and design, this thesis explores the relationship between food and architecture, accepting them as the two prime necessities of human life and beginning to question their intersection and its products. We accept fine dining as the ultimate intentional convergence of food and architecture, intended to create an experience that stimulates the senses while executing the principles of gastronomy, here defined as a study of the relationship between food and culture and the practice of producing, preparing and consuming good food. Through this study, the thesis will challenge the common structure of architectural educational discourse by building a final product at full scale, collaborating with students in an extra-architectural field of study, addressing human dynamics with the potential to achieve pleasure and social relations, and implementing total architectural control in a given space.

The research intent is to explore how fine dining mobilizes and manages behavioral dependencies on the latent infrastructures and tacit rules that define any given space. In a study of fine dining, the manipulation of human behavior and the ritualistic patterns can become normalized through total architectural control, presenting a platform by which other experiences can be executed. This design thus aims to emphasize both the traditional and the unconventional rules and practices of consumption by exaggerating their attributes, leading to a fully curated and executed dining experience to test a series of interventions. The implemented techniques of functionality, counter figuration and material instability will lead to commentary that reveals the technical and political aspects of consumption and later introduces an architecture that intrinsically encourages desired practices as opposed to prohibiting unwanted behavior through external means. From a broader perspective, they will begin to generate a model for future realities by which architecture becomes a medium to consciously manipulate human behavior through form, space, and aesthetics.

The project was developed at the Syracuse University’s School of Architecture in collaboration with Kyle Miller, Greg Corso & Daniele Profeta.

KOOZ What prompted the project?

KD | FDS From very early on we knew we wanted to work together on this area that explores the cross of architecture and the extra-architectural. We also share a love for food and dining processes that ranges from food spaces to the latent infrastructures behind food systems (cultural, ecological, social). Past our personal connection to food, we also appreciated a lot of similarities between the chef and the architect and how they approach their craft, but also how one’s practice affects the other, rendering the intersection of food and architecture an exciting prompt for our thesis project.

KOOZ What questions does the project raise and which does it address?

KD | FDS Learning from Fine Dining definitely raises a question regarding the present agency of architecture and the architect. As we explored how architecture is tied to innumerable fields of study, simultaneously influencing and being influenced by the extra-architectural, we attempted to demonstrate how architectural thinking (here in relation to materiality, rituals and composition) can play a larger role in plateauing social structures and shaping a sustainable lifestyle through the consideration of human cognition and the linkage of behavior and design.

KOOZ How did you undertake the research in exploring the development of fine dining? What tools did you use and how did this inform the project?

KD | FDS In addition to literature, a lot of eating, and an etiquette seminar, the project was entirely conducted as a collaborative effort. As architecture students with an interest in food, we were fully aware that our knowledge past the architectural components of the project would only be able to take us so far, so we sought out to partner with students outside of our field with similar research interests to truly drive the project in a comprehensive way. To complement the expertise from our collaborators from Syracuse and UMass Amherst, we also conducted a series of interviews with different professionals who maintain varying connections to the culinary world.

KOOZ If you had to pick one pivotal object that influenced the design, what would this be and why?

KD | FDS Although it wasn’t the first artifact we fully developed, the Heavy Chair (glove-clad chair) was definitely a defining point in the pursuits and overall aesthetic of the project. As we translated our research into design intentions, one of the first rules that organically occurred was the idea of not moving once you have been seated. The approach to this rule led to ways of thinking about informing human action intrinsically and minimally through design and became a reference for the design of the following artifacts to not state or enforce a rule but rather lead to a desired outcome by stimulating the senses and generating aesthetic experiences.

KOOZ What defined the series of artifacts developed? How do these operate as single entities and as part of a whole?

KD | FDS During our research, we outlined what we defined as the Rules of Fine Dining: a series of unspoken rules gathered from publications, articles, and interviews. As these rules remain largely inaccessible or unknown but maintain their presence in fine dining establishments, we decided to use them as guidelines to shape the development of the artifacts. Each artifact was designed and produced to correspond to a singular chosen rule, influencing and sometimes dictating behavior by manipulating tactility and aesthetics. These operate at different scales, always preserving a recognizable function that may be engaged with as a singular object or together with other artifacts as a curated three-course meal and its accompanying furniture.

KOOZ To what extent did the project affect the way you operate as an architect?

KD | FDS Working on this project really pushed the idea that architecture does not only apply to the built, occupiable environment – architecture and architectural concepts can transcend medium and scale and exist as a way of thinking and approaching other fields of study. More closely related to the actual project, the process also expanded our interests in continuing to explore the ways in which architecture has an impact on human cognition at a variety of scales.

KOOZ How does the project approach the role of the architect and architecture today?

KD | FDS A recurring question during our project’s development was “how is this not an industrial design thesis?” This really drove an ideal that architecture cannot happen independently of other fields of study and explorations but can maintain its integrity as architecture. As architects, we are always influencing and being influenced by that which surrounds us, whether it be at the micro or macro level, and so our role regards the exchange of ideas, the exploration of curiosities and the construction not just of buildings but of experiences and new realities.

KOOZ What is for you the power of the Architectural Imaginary?

KD | FDS The Architectural Imaginary is what ultimately shapes the built environment that we see and experience every day. As architects are informed by what they see, witness, and experience – whether we realize it or not – the imaginary is embedded into our subconscious and is always present in our work. As design is inherently an act of speculation, the imaginary is a way of suspending disbelief, a tool to realize the built environment and a way to construct near future fictions that may not always be concerned with directly solving a problem but always engage with pressing global issues and privilege form-making over form-finding.

KOOZ What is for you the architect's most important tool?

KD | FDS Their voice. While architects may not dictate everything that happens in the world, they are often present as invisible voices to shape and develop much of what we observe or experience in our daily lives. Architects not only exist to execute someone else’s vision but also have the ability to create narratives and the duty to conceive new forms and environments for living. Architects have a lot more agency than is currently realized and are definitely equipped with the tools necessary to create a more sustainable future.

Bio

Karisma Dev & Felix Samo are California- and Puerto Rico-based designers that received their Bachelor in Architecture degrees from Syracuse University and are currently graduate students at Cornell University. Their expertise is based in sustainable building design, material developments, representation methods and exploring the working relationship between architectural and trans-disciplinary fields of study. Both Felix and Karisma are Certified Associates in Project Management, Envision Sustainability Professionals and LEED Green Associates, and have experience working on commercial, educational and transportation facilities in Southern California, New York and Puerto Rico.