a menu for another french revolution

TURNING THE TABLE ON CONVENTIONAL DINING

Type: Restaurant

Location: Paris, France

Year: 2017

Status: Design Competition Proposal; Shortlisted

Design Team: Armando Rigau & Ryan Glick

Description: Project This project reinvents French cuisine by questioning how we consume it. In reaction to recent opinions that deem France’s culinary hegemony in decline and dull, this design proposal transforms the traditional concept of a restaurant. Conceived as a center for the development of culinary arts, it destabilizes conventional dining expectations by introducing user driven experiences. Any visitor to this food hub has a choice to select from a menu of unique eating ventures that redefine three critical components of the joie de l’expérience: the Setting, the Service, and the Senses.

Any client first selects a Setting, which instigates an experience grounded in a singular relationship to nature, be it land, sea, or sky. This in turn prompts a particular Service model, where you can explore food individually, with a partner, or as part of a large group. Lastly, each dining experience intensifies the use of the Senses – taste, touch, smell, hearing, and seeing – by amplifying one and negating another.

France’s rich historical influence in both cuisine and urbanism cannot be denied. Hence, this prototype for a 21st century “restaurant” not only incorporates the country’s “intangible heritage,” but transforms it through architecture by exploring the ephemeral qualities of our phenomenal experience. Formally, the building performs as a new node that visually connects back to the city’s main attractions. Materially, a series of protruding metal-and-glass boxes challenge the outer marble facade that fits within Paris’ monumental context. The result is a building with an equal sense of permanence and transience. Beyond a singular programmatic offering, the design stimulates diverse, customized events. As each historical period has determined its own nouvelle cuisine, we are reminded of Modern chef George Auguste Escoffier: “progress marches on each day” …

And the times are ripe for another French revolution.