Supervisor:
Lisbeth Funck & Matthew Dylan Anderson
This diploma works in three chapters: Manifesto - Personal position; Iterative Design Research - personal design inquiry; and The Hearth: The New Neighbourhood Hearth Proposal - The Final proposal of the communal kitchen.
While the entry into the project is a deeply personal response as a diaspora citizen, this space extends beyond myself, reflecting the difficulty of belonging for immigrants across Oslo.
While architecture may not cure the longing for home, it can provide the spatial agency necessary for newcomers, emancipating them from being temporary guests into active co-authors of home in an urban context.
Chapter 1 Manifesto
The project resolves as a speculative proposal to the municipality for a new communal kitchen in Grønland, Oslo. The report begins with a personal story of why and how I end up with landing on this communal kitchen proposal.
Chapter 2 Iterative Design Research
The following spatial exercises document an iterative search for home. While the design process was rarely linear, these explorations trace the tension between building a generalized civic infrastructure and authoring an intimate, personal space. The architectural friction in these iterations directly mirrors my own internal struggle to integrate, build connections, and claim space in Oslo.
I. How My Kitchen Works? - Deconstructing the Work Sequence
Modern domestic kitchens are built on a triad of efficiency: storage, preparation, and cooking. To spatialize cultural preservation and collectivity, I expanded this sequence, adding dedicated zones for Provisioning, Preservation, Special Cooking (for heavy ventilation), and Cleaning.
I then translate the new sequences into a conceptual physical volumes for twenty people. The serving spaces acted as a connective belt to link the functions together.
By structuring the space this way, the architecture unintentionally replicated the logic of a commercial assembly line. Physically distancing the preparation zone from the dining area reinforced the unidirectional host-and-guest dynamic, rather than dissolving it.
II. The Monolithic Hall
Attempting to maximize social friction, I collapsed the functions into a singular, monumental cooking core surrounded by an outer ring of preparation and dining.
The result was intimidating. Placing twenty people in a highly centralized, performative arena felt less like a home and more like an overwhelming infrastructure. The constant pressure to actively perform erased the intimacy of belonging.
III. The Modular Kiosk
Pivoting toward extreme adaptability, I broke the kitchen down into highly feasible, scattered modules designed to plug into residual pocket spaces across Oslo.
Up until this point, my experiments had pivoted heavily toward pure functionality. I knew exactly how the service and technical spaces needed to be constructed. I knew the architectural formula for staging human encounters.
But I looked back at my early sketches. I realized I was missing something. I missed the passive, highly accessible, and visible Preservation space—the place where I could quietly culture my food. Together with the heavy kitchen accommodating intense aromatics, and the shared table space that links people together. The ingredients were all there. It was simply up to me to figure out how to navigate them into the homey dish I was looking for.
Chapter 3 The Hearth - The New Neighbourhood Hearth Proposal
I. Norbygata 52
When we talk about Grønland, we often talk about how bustling and ethnically vibrant it is, but we must also acknowledge the difficult reality its residents face. But instead of a place to be rescued, can we embrace opportunity and potential already exist in the neighbourhood?
At the end of Grønland Basar, in the neighbourhood full of ethnic grocery store, community bookstore, salon, all kinds of local resources and network, there is a surface parking lot in Norbygata 52.
Surrounded by multiple single-storey structures with a cylindrical tower on the side, and framed by an open corridor, the proposal deliberately preserves that magical moment shining into the courtyard.
II. Operation model
The project is envisioned as a 5-year intermediate living ecosystem. I am thinking if I can collaborate with other people: Bank, Municipality and Real estate developer as strategic partners to fund the project as a cultural driver; Supermarket and Matsentralen as resources collaborator for better use of residue resources; More importantly, guest chefs, food artists, advocates, and the local community to form a caretaker committee to oversee the space.
III. Design
The new hearth consists of two fully equipped, loud, and active kitchens, distributed on both sides to avoid replicating the performative arena of my earlier tests.
At the very end, there is a walk-in storage to house the majority of the inventory, with a compost station situated just in front. In the corner it sits the quiet Preservation Library—a dedicated space for storing and preparing foods that take time to culture. And in the front is the Caretaker House, aside from caretaker’s workplace, it also holds the recipe archive and the public bathrooms.
The Kitchen
Against the tallest back wall, connecting to the technical room, we placed all the heavy appliances, from industrial steamer, ovens, to sinks, dishwashers, stove etc. It features massive heavy ventilation designed specifically so that my pungent shrimp-paste stir-fry doesn’t overpower the space. But in the middle of the room, it is entirely flexible. Moveable prep tables are placed all along the axis to adapt to different social setting and event setting. Fitting them to the window seat, it becomes a cozy dining table.
Preservation Library
In this cylindrical tower, all the jars and boxes all the shelves act as silent teachers of preservation methods from countless cultures. The façade is fully cladded with no window to provide a controlled lighting condition necessary for fermentation and preservation to develop.
Courtyard
Caretaker house
As the operational brain of the site, it provides a decided workplace for the caretakers and houses the public bathrooms. But more importantly, the lounge serves as a physical archive for food and documentation.
Contact
Yuen Shing (Finn) CHAN