For my Small Spaces Studio course, I repurposed three shipping containers into Community Kitchen — a food bank that provides those who are food insecure a place to prepare and enjoy home-cooked meals.
This project challenged me to use three shipping containers (two 20′ long and one 40′ long) to create any space of my choosing. I wanted my design to address a current social issue in America and I have always been passionate about food insecurity, so I decided to create a space that would help resolve this problem.
Before developing my design, I had to strategically locate my space, which meant researching the most food insecure places in America. Since Los Angeles County has the largest population of food insecure people in America, I decided to locate my space in the Skid Row District, which is particularly known for its condensed homeless population.
Currently, traditional soup kitchens have a limited selection and cannot properly accommodate each person’s cultural and/or dietary preferences. Many people also lack a space to prepare their own food or do not have access to fresh, healthy ingredients.
To address all of these problems, I have created the Community Kitchen, a place where cooking meets community. Here, users will find an inclusive environment that allows them to cook what they want, how they want it.
The Community Kitchen provides fresh produce and basic ingredients as well as a kitchen prep space. Users are also encouraged to bring their preferred ingredients to cook anything they desire.
My Goal
To alleviate the issue of food insecurity by providing resources and a flexible space for meal preparation and dining, while promoting a sense of community and a healthy lifestyle.
To gain a better understanding of my target user group, I collected research on the demographics and development in Skid Row. I found that nearly half of the population, which is predominantly Black and Latino or Hispanic, was below the poverty line. Based on my key findings, I created the following persona analysis for anticipated users.
The site location was a crucial element of the space. I conducted a site analysis of Skid Row that included investigating commercial buildings, residential buildings, and social service buildings. I came upon San Julian Park, which granted me the space I needed and the location I wanted for the Community Kitchen. To ensure that my space is accessible to my target user group, it was important that the Community Kitchen be located in a high-traffic area that was in close proximity to places relevant to my target user group. The key surroundings are the Los Angeles Mission, a homeless shelter across the street, a community center adjacent to the park, and the Union Rescue Mission in close proximity, as demonstrated below.
To accomplish my goal, I needed the Community Kitchen to have a kitchen, a dining area, a bathroom, and an office for the Community Kitchen’s facilitator. I also decided to include a courtyard to expand the dining area beyond the limited space within the shipping containers.
To attract foot traffic, I placed the longest shipping container parallel to 5th street where Los Angeles Mission is located. I applied floor-to-ceiling windows along this shipping container to demonstrate the Community Kitchen’s function to passersby. I arranged the other two smaller shipping containers to enclose a private courtyard area. To enhance the privacy of users and to eliminate public foot-traffic through the courtyard, I also designed a modular garden system to act as a visual and physical barrier.
The Community Kitchen aims to bring people together, not just for cooking, but for harvesting the ingredients they use. The food insecure population should not have to compromise on the quality of the food they consume, and Community Kitchen wants to address this. Not only does the vegetable and herb garden promote healthy, sustainable eating, but it unites the community as they work together to upkeep the garden. To reflect the modularity and geometry of the shipping containers, this unique planter system is made up of rectangular prisms that are assembled in an L-shape. The planters were strategically placed in an effort to maintain a private area within the courtyard and to prevent invasion of the park’s public foot traffic.
I was challenged to create a 3D model (1/8″ : 1′ 0″ scale) of the Community Kitchen as a visual aid to my design. The model is assembled on a foamcore base with museum board to represent the sidewalks and courtyard space, light wood sheets to represent grass, and sand paper to represent pebble-stone. The building’s materials consist of acrylic for the windows, corrugated plastic for the exterior, and museum board for furniture and doors.
Community Kitchen not only tends to the issue of food insecurity by offering people the resources and the space to make personalized meals, but it provides the opportunity to be a part of a community, something that many people dealing with food insecurity lack. It is important to consider the considerable amount of funding and facilitation of such a solution, however, I believe the change instilled would outweigh the costs.
In the future, I could see Community Kitchens popping up worldwide due to the easy assemblage that the shipping container structure lends. If implemented, my design solution could potentially revolutionize society’s approach to food banks and soup kitchens. Community Kitchen empowers its users and brings the community closer.