These are kitchen spaces for people beyond the nuclear family to come together to cook and eat. We see them as a blend of home kitchen, café, village hall and pub.
In his 40 plus years as a designer Johnny’s kitchens have always promoted the shared pleasures of cooking, eating, drinking and putting the world to rights. His furniture and layouts encourage lingering at a sunny or candlelit table, chatting while chopping at an island or stirring a pot on the hob, perching nearby to catch up after a day’s work or get some help with homework. Johnny is now transplanting these modes of kitchen living into communal meeting spaces. The expansion of co-living apartments, co-working spaces, student halls of residence and later living villages offer exciting new opportunities for food and cooking to bring people together. The result is a more dynamic, connected society that combats loneliness.
With Cultivating Community the Royal Society of Arts, funded by L&G, invites students to invent new ways to do this – winners to announced in June.
Co-kitchens living space (artist's illustration)