2022, Fall Quarter, 10 weeks, UCLA
Group project with: Jane Wu, Xinyi Li
Encompassing the full food cycle, our project, Food Haven, reimagines the existing McDonald’s as a communal kitchen, food bank, and garden that brings together neighborhood visitors, safe parking residents, and housing residents. The safe parking includes a private area connected to each car parking space surrounded by buffers of plants and movable curtains. Housing units include shared gardens, as well as both private and shared kitchen and dining areas within clusters of units.
By transforming the typically domestic or commercialized spaces of growing, preparing, and distributing food into a public realm, our project creates a commons that subverts the commodification of food access. The temporal and seasonal aspects of food are manifested in our project, from growing, harvesting, storing, cooking, eating, composting, and growing food again. Safe parking residents, housing residents, and neighborhood visitors participate in varied but overlapping portions of this cycle, which fosters varied scales of collectivity.
Our project improves food security, provides access to fresh produce and nutritional information, and shares freshly cooked food with local food distribution organizations.
Programs: Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign
