Areas
The Meatery is a place of gathering, learning, experimentation and exploration. It allows spaces to create an experience that goes beyond a lab, kitchen, food hall, meeting place, garden or restaurant. This project proposes a new type of urban venue that encompasses all of these things at once. Looking into the cutting-edge research of cultured meat, a typology for a biofabricated meat lab and factory that operates on the production and consumption of cultured meat does not exist. The innovation of this venue is complemented by the incorporation of existing post-processing techniques of this new meat such as smoking, salting and curing.
We explored materiality and its ability to deteriorate and de- familiarize form. Layers of concrete, brick, corten, perforation and foliage build up to create a facade that is neither completely urban nor pastoral. For us, materiality has evolved beyond a surface treatment. The materials become spatial through extruded louvers and fluting. The chasm between the two buildings creates views of connection and moments of tension. The steep cantilevers at the front invite you in as the applique of the facade breaks down large exterior planes. This treatment is mirrored throughout the site, as normative elements intersect with the figural.
Neither made in a laboratory, nor grown in a pasture, this new era of a biofabrication allows a new Meatery to emerge, creating new connections and relationships with food and the environment.