New Business Incubator

Create Culinary Culture, New York - Competition Finalist

Sven Peters, 2011-2012

in collaboration with VUW / CastDesignStudio

Create Culinary Culture, is a Brooklyn for-profit new food-service business incubator and commercial shared kitchen seeks to capitalize on the diverse independent and ethnic cultural trends of the borough. This project is in the pre-development stages and is actively seeking a suitable space that will be designed or developed to accommodate a multi-faceted programme and live up to its mandate as a center of community culture and entrepreneurial spirit. Developed in response to, and partially funded by the New York Economic Development Corporation (NYEDC) - a public-private partnership promoting New York City's small businesses - the project meets a specific, local need for flexible, low cost professional kitchen equipment and workspace. Despite the downturn in the overall economy, NYEDC has identified a consistent growth of food related businesses coming from the Brooklyn communities and seeks to promote this trend by providing financial, legal and professional support to these micro-businesses. By capitalizing on cooperative trends in the arts, Create Culinary Culture, will provide shared work-spaces, equipment as well as professional, legal and business related mentoring and investment in a central location. The schematic programme, will include 10 kitchen zones used cooperatively by members of the incubator over a 24 hour period, 7 wet kitchens, and 3 baking kitchens. There will be a retail/cafe storefront managed by the entity featuring incubator tenants and local food fare. A kitchen studio and event space will support filming, demonstration, teaching and catering events. An 8000 sf, roof is configured as leasable garden plots for organic, culinary and heirloom products grown by the tenants. Modeled after other rooftop farming installations in Brooklyn, the Create Culinary Culture roof will be designed with rainwater harvesting capabilities and wind-turbine energy collection as feed-stock for the irrigation system. Composting, apiaries, and aviaries work together to complete the urban agricultural cycle. On the adjacent park lot, farmer and community markets and events will be planned. In cultural terms, the aspiration of the Create incubator is to analogous to a living museum, reflecting, promoting and serving the complex and diaphanous flavor of Brooklyn's taste makers.