Cooking Architecture : Archiectural Flavours of the Pacific Northwest

Cuisine and architecture are both service industries, providing for the needs and wants of their respective clientele. Historical stylistic trends show aesthetic and ideological overlap between these two arts dating back millennia: where architecture was austere and pared back, so was the cuisine; when ornamentation prevailed, it did so in both disciplines. The clients of the preeminent architects or chefs of any given period generally shared the prevailing tastes, resulting in legible aesthetic periods. This relationship holds today as it has in the past, suggesting a potential for knowledge transfer between the two arts. With the emergence of west coast cuisine in the Pacific Northwest, a new culinary ethic rooted in regionalism, sustainability, and creative invention has taken root in the minds and on the plates of locals up and down the coast. The architectural opportunities to embody this stylistic movement are explored in depth for a project located near Vancouver’s Jericho Beach.