Food-Topia

Public Center//Community Kitchen Roma

Tiburtina Train Station, Italy

2023 Fall, B.Arch Year 4

Collaborate with Tony Liu

Professor: John Zissovici

The project is located in Rome, between the Roma Tiburtina train station and a bus stop, and serves as a central hub for locals, visitors, and immigrants on a daily basis. Its concept focuses on the idea of cooking and dining as common rituals, using them as a centrifugal force to unite people from diverse backgrounds. The project preserves and repurposes the existing buildings, integrating them into parts of the project. Trees on the site are also maintained to create courtyard spaces. A multi-layered core accommodates various culinary programs, around which an open-plan shelter floats atop the sunken site. A large polycarbonate shell rests on top of the sunken space to house the market. Within it, there is a layer featuring a stone cone with a dining table extending out to the exterior. At the center of the cone sits a metal chimney, below which is the cooking area. Exiting the center and connected to the adjacent building is the space for food preparation. Finally, above the current building is the rooftop garden. A ramp rises between the stone and chimney layers, creating a platform where the cooking process can be observed. From this core, tangential axes are used to draw people in from across the site. The main entrance directly faces Tiburtina station, and the path cuts across the site to create a passage from the train station to the bus station. Above this path, a waiting area for the bus station rises to match the gable roof of the existing building.