If the kitchen is the heart of a household, a communal kitchen should become the heart of the neighbourhood. The project focuses on the social and environmental aspects of a community kitchen in the residential urban context of Marvila, a district of Lisbon. 

As a meeting point, it provides a setting where the exchange occurs. 

From the production of essential supplies to the provision of a dish for the selling point, the project wants to enable participation at all stages, providing a pattern to activate a local micro-economy. 

By rationalizing the cooking process to their physical attributes, the air movement is enhanced by convection. Temperature and humidity fluctuations provide energy to the air mass, and the building becomes an airflow apparatus. This spatial layout allows for an open floor plan, creating micro-climates in the interior areas.

 The building is further shaped in the third dimension following the existing topography, and it splits into four interconnecting levels.

The roof is a rational grid, and it expands to the site’s limits. The cooking area becomes the centre of the community: a monumental clay chimney serves as an exhaust, and its presence gives character to the place. 

The facade is strategically restrained to the centre, allowing a cantilevered roof to the south, protecting against direct sunlight. 

Openings on the top allow daylight to penetrate to the core of the building and the unrestrained growth of the patio plants. These openings are further provided with horizontal slats to protect against direct sunlight. Porosity in all building layers allows constant interaction between interior space, vegetation, and public space where the inside becomes outside and vice versa