The fourth semester at Studio de Vylder concerned itself with working in context. In groups of three we were assigned to a building in an urban, sub-urban or rural context. The semester then revolved around analyzing the building and its context, to define and develop a new program for the building.

Originally an office building with a shop and café in the ground floor, Zweierstrasse 25 in Zürich, was our groups focus. In our analysis of the surroundings we identified the rich food culture in this part of town. Paired with the idea that todays food production and waste practice is simply unsustainable, we decided to make this our starting point for the project.

We decided to design a cooking school, specialized in sustainable food practices. Leftovers from the surrounding gastronomy would be collected with cargo-bikes and used as a resource in the school.

The school should not only educate the visiting students, but also the general public. By setting back the facade at the street level and creating several points of interaction between the public and the inhabiting students, the public is invited in and encouraged to think, react to and discuss the alternative cooking practices.

The idea of talking about food continues throughout the building. The living floors for the students consist of several shared kitchens, with their rooms situated around them. The kitchen not only functions as a space to produce food, but becomes a space where the students get together, play, study and eat.

The balcony, accessible from the rooms, acts as another point of interaction between the public and the inhabitants. From the plant pots used for productive gardening, to the small coffee table attached to the railing, presenting food and encouraging an interaction between food and humans remains the constant for this building.