Interior Architecture
Adaptive Reuse
ON AIR
2018
Providence, RI
Culinary Studio
7,100 SF
Location
Building Type
Building Area
On Air reimagines a former CVS interior in Providence as a civic culinary studio—where cooking becomes a public broadcast. The project begins with “unwanted” produce: edible fruits and vegetables discarded for cosmetic standards, often left unharvested even as communities face food insecurity. By turning the act of cooking into a shared event, On Air shifts perception through pleasure and participation—gathering, learning, and eating around what was once treated as surplus.
Stage as Social Infrastructure
The stage acts as a social magnet, concentrating shared attention on everyday labor. Passersby can watch, visitors can linger, and participants can join—turning cooking into an accessible civic ritual rather than a hidden process.
Reconfigurable System + Operating Scenario
A kit-of-parts system allows the space to shift from daily programming to peak events. Vertically moving elements and suspended components reorganize circulation, seating, and viewing without rebuilding the room—treating architecture as an operating script.
From Shell to Stage
Within a single retail volume, a central platform anchors the space while bands for information, prep, seating, and circulation continuously realign around it. Program is scheduled as timed states—information, dining, class, and show—allowing the interior to operate as repeatable event infrastructure rather than fixed rooms.
↑ From stigma to spectacle—Unwanted produce becomes the reason to gather.
By staging cooking as a visible broadcast—part meal, part education, part performance—On Air turns stigma into curiosity. Partnering with gleaning networks like Hope’s Harvest RI, recovered produce enters the space as both ingredient and story.
↑ 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 around attention, the space supports multiple viewing distances. A large overhead monitor extends the event beyond the platform, making the act of cooking legible to both participants and passersby moving through the urban corridor.
