Angels Share - a dining experience
Slice Project, MDes Interior Design GSA
October 2022 - January 2023
My intention is through my design to give the user the possibility for a real treat strengthening his senses at the same time. In my project I explore the rituality of consumption by designing a new age dining space, a ritual space. So what would a new age restaurant look like in a few decades from now?
This project is the outcome of my first semester research on an assigned bloc on Sauchiehall Street. Taking into account my analysis about Sauchiehall Street, its typologies and the way pedestrians consume space and food through their eyes just by walking I realised the importance to rethink the way space and most specifically dining space is designed.
If we consider how fast the society changes and at what level digital reality has been integrated in our every-day life, we can assume that in a few decades from now a constant need will arise to eliminate the boundaries in communication that distance creates. My intention is to design a dining space where people can go solo or with their friends, meet and share their table digitally with friends or family living far away. The idea is that there will be a network of restaurants that will be synchronised to create the same experience in their clients. Every brand of restaurants will provide another dining experience to their users. I design the physical restaurant in Glasgow for the company Angel’s Share. But how we can strike the balance between digital and real world. How can we enjoy the privileges of technology without losing our haptical sense, our smell and taste? The idea is that all users should pass some stages of interaction with the other clients before reaching the virtual-reality room and dine with their friends digitally. These stages tried to make them understand the way they consumpt food, strengthening their senses and making them eat more consciously.
WELCOME...
Welcome to the Angels Share Glasgow. This restaurant situated on 520 Sauchiehall street used to be one of oldest cinemas of the area, the King’s cinema.
Get ready to become part of a cinematic approach during the consumption experience and transform into the main actors of this show. There are no right or wrong performances. Trust your senses and instincts and follow the odours and sounds.
Meet the other participants at the circular platform of Angels Share Glasgow restaurant every hour and share your table with your beloved ones who live far away. We promise you that distance means nothing when you dine with us.
MENU AND THEATER PROGRAMME
ANALYSIS
Transitions are a key design element to my approach. I correlate the menu with the different stages clients should pass during this experience. Every transition signifies the passage from one stage to another, from one dish to another. I also try to visualise the contrast between the inner world of the restaurant which works like a machine with the front space of the restaurant where plates are served which share similarities with the theatre stage.
Materiality Board
Overall, each room is an independent space, an inner space where each act is taking place without being correlated with the others. However, there are some key points during the narrative, the “ in between spaces” as I named them, where clients have the chance to perceive the space as a whole and not just the fragment inner space of each act.
The in-between spaces share similarities with liminal spaces. Regarding materiality in these spaces I chose to highlight the mechanical part of the restaurant creating an industrial effect. It is not only the material and its texture it is how the material creates sound and has a real function in space. Curtains, plastic, mirrors and lighting are some basic elements which multiply the sense of liminality in space.
Each ACT is a balance between haptical and optical experience. In the last ACT, the Dessert the use of materials is based on the haptical experience. Wood, carpets, plants and mats compose a vivid scenery. This ACT is the only part of the narrative space with no liminal characteristics.
