Interior Architecture
Adaptive Reuse
ON AIR
2018
Providence, RI
Culinary Studio
7,100 SF
Location
Building Type
Building Area
Reclaiming the culinary process as civic engagement, the intervention transforms a retail shell into a stage for urban interaction. The design dismantles visual barriers of back-of-house labor, turning food waste reduction into a shared, transparent spectacle for the city.
From Shell to Stage
Occupying a dormant retail shell connecting Kennedy Plaza and Westminster Street, the project activates a critical pedestrian link.
While the context is defined by movement, the vacant interior required a new civic anchor.
Leveraging the constraints of the existing volume, the intervention reframes the deep interior as a stage.
Program is organized around visibility, allowing an ordinary retail space to repeatedly transform into a site of public performance.
↑ From stigma to spectacle—Unwanted produce becomes the reason to gather.
On Air stages cooking as a visible broadcast, turning stigma into curiosity. With local gleaning partners, recovered produce enters as both ingredient and story.
Stage as Social Infrastructure
A central platform anchors the space, while movable bands for prep, dining, and display realign to support changing needs.
Cooking is elevated from hidden labor to a visible social act.
Open sightlines and broadcast monitors extend the culinary process beyond the kitchen, dissolving the boundary between audience and participant to engage the street.
Reconfigurable System + Operating Scenario
Deployed as a kit-of-parts, the interior shifts modes without structural rebuilding.
From a quiet information hub to an active dining hall, the space adapts its density.
At peak moments, all elements—lighting, screens, and platforms—activate to turn the room into a city-facing culinary spectacle.
↑ Urban Broadcast Study (2018), Concept video
Cooking is reframed as a street-facing public signal—extending the event beyond the room to the city.
Visibility & Distance
Designed for multiple viewing distances, the space performs both up close and from afar.
Elevated platforms, suspended elements, and broadcast surfaces ensure the event remains legible whether one is cooking, dining, or simply passing through—allowing the city itself to become an audience.
