bite: a food-culture-technology revolution (scott francisco + nick senske)

BITE

foodculturetechnologyrevolutionscott francisco/nick senske

©2004 all rights reserved

The success of the Open Source Café is based on several key concepts:

new café transforms Student Center entrance

-Fusion of the city and the Institute

-Inspires constant participation

-Structured for adaptation to changing needs

-Capitalizes on cutting edge technology developed at the Institute

-Offers a constant variety of tantalizing food from cultures around the world

-Becomes the place to be, on campus, and lower Cambridge

The basic idea is to engage the student population in thinking about food in a creative way, tapping cultural roots for solutions to healthy eating in America. The call for participation, anticipation, lighthearted politicking, along with constant variety will ensure a steady flow of customers who have a personal stake in the system. Students can become stars of the menu, enlisting a truly unique criteria for popularity and innovation––grandma’s recipe for stuffed tomatoes.

The Open Source Café is a threshold between the Institute and the vibrant city; a place where a student from Beijing, or Bogotá, Toledo, Toronto or Thessalonica could sit with peers, professors or parents sharing life stories and discoveries, while eating something that nourishes and inspires discussion; a place where a recruiter could meet with a prospective researcher, surrounded by a subculture that echoes the creativity of the laboratories and studios––a place where encounters across all social groups would happen every day.

B I T E: a food-culture-technology revolution

In the world of technology and research, MIT’s reputation for excellence precedes itself. But does this excellence extend to student life?

Approach any graduate student, the engine of MIT’s cutting edge research, and they are likely to voice the same frustrated question: “Why should a university with the global reputation of MIT, situated in the heart of one of America’s most cosmopolitan cities, be lacking in urban identity and culture?”

...Where is a person supposed to eat?

Ironically, these same MIT researchers are discovering in their laboratories and think-tanks that real ‘places’––places that cultivate dialogue and interaction––are founda-tional to creative work. Not to mention that top students and faculty, coming from cities around the world, are expecting more from an institution that they will soon call home. The consensus is that change is needed––and fast.

What if MIT developed a café that really worked?...

Proposal:

...a place that integrated delicious healthy food, a diverse and edgy atmosphere, an awareness of world cultures, all with a twist that would make the experience unique to MIT. If this could happen anywhere, why not here, at a place the world looks to for new ideas? Given MIT’s current landscape, new ideas are essential.

The Open Source Café: ‘BITE‘, inspired by the cutting edge design/development movement in software and technology, engages its patrons in developing an evolving menu of simple and nutritious food from around the world.

Against a background of eclectic music and media, a weekly menu is served over the counter. This menu is presided over by a ‘chef’ who has culled and tested recipes that have been submitted on the café’s internal website. Students vie for their submissions to make the ‘menu list’ based on several key prin-ciples: Nutrition, Ease of Preparation, Tastiness, and Affordability. Once selected, tested and refined by the chef, menu items are offered in a state of consumer competition. A menu board continuously records the number of purchases and ranks them. Once per week, the lowest scoring item is dropped from the list to make way for a new item. Favorites remain until they lose support and drop off the list.

BITE’s cutting edge infrastructure facilitates realtime adaptation, and the opportunity for advanced food culture research.

“Some days, I just don’t come to school... because there’s nothing good to eat on campus.... I can’t face it everyday”

-Lydia Kallipoliti, graduate student from Greece

“…to be honest, it’s pretty bad. Around MIT there’s basically only burgers and Pizza. There are a few more exotic restaurants up the street, but you can’t eat there every day. We need something good and simple, …a place that feels real, to sit, eat decent food and watch the world go by...”

-Goncalos Soares, Graduate Student from Portugal


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50 SEAT DINING ROOM

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Logistics:Managing this enterprise will be a challenge worthy of the Institute. Infrastructure, both physical and strategic will be rigorously designed for success. For example: In order for food versatility and affordability to be possible from a small venue, certain menu items could be outsourced to existing MIT kitchens not currently working to capacity. With the Chef at the helm to maintain quality and precision, efficiency will become part of the basic planning strategy.

Site:Currently there is one practical site available: At the junction of both student and city traffic flow––in the prominent corner of the Student Center facing Mass Ave. and the cross-walk to Building 7. With a moderate refit this existing 1600 sq ft space could be transformed into a venue with seating for 40 and an efficient diner-style kitchen. (see floor plan)

Infrastructure:The Open Source Café is an ‘infrastructure-rich’ network that is designed to be “hacked”. By setting up systems that call for input with the reward of public visibility, students are encouraged to get involved. Food, lighting, music and media display each have a controlled interactive component facilitated by infrastructural design.

It is time for MIT to tap the power of its unparalleled resources of people, infrastructure and history. Every

opportunity for creating public places of interaction, exchange and identity must be seized. Food is one of the

most powerful catalysts for these activities. It is essential, engaging and representative. In our world of increas-

ing digitization and specialization, food is one of the few remaining shared events with the power to bring

people together in space and time––into places of connection, collaboration and identity formation.

America and the rest of the world are waiting for good examples.

Challenge:

Objectives :

• Healthy, diverse and affordable food, tailored to student needs.

• Atmosphere and location creates focal point, enhancing culture and community.

• ‘Process’ rather than product keeps people involved and the concept fresh

• • Unique concept creates public awareness and dialogue

• • Educational aspect breaks pattern of American fast food culture and provides leadership for the way we eat and socialize.

• Café becomes a laboratory for cutting-edge food culture research.

Will MIT respond?©2004 all rights reserved

BITE

Scott Francisco and Nick Senske

Scott Francisco, SMArchS MIT, BArch Toronto, is a practicing designer and Graduate student in MIT's Department of Architecture and Planning. He has designed, built and managed numerous residential, commercial, institutional and landscape projects in Canada and the US, and has taught design studio and theory at the University of Kentucky College of Architecture. He is currently researching the "architectural nature of culture"––how culture operates as an infrastructure, and how we operate on it.

Nick Senske, SMArchS MIT, BArch Iowa State, is a digital design consultant and Graduate student in MIT's Department of Architecture and Planning. He has assisted in designing and visualizing numerous projects in the eastern US. He is currently researching the introduction of design computa-tion in professional architecture programs at the undergraduate level.
