'Giant' restaurant: Reimagine a restaurant themed on Jack and the Beanstalk story

While walking down the streets, we are overwhelmed by the aromas emanating from the gastronomic establishments we pass through. Be it the cafes, lounges, or restaurants, we can see people celebrating, and enjoying social activities. 

The restaurant industry has evolved into one of the most important industries in urban landscapes. Globalization and urbanization have been the forces that have led to its popularity. Restaurants have always been more than a place that serves food and drinks, they were social centers of cities. 

Restaurants, in the contemporary era, have far more reaching effects than their social features. This industry is capable of shaping the city, its culture, and the overall economy. Vibrant city streets with restaurants make good neighborhoods.

Today, these forms of restaurants have been experimenting with the foods and ambiances of their joints, creating innumerable possibilities for an immersive dining experience. Technology has enabled us to customize the user experience, bringing theme-based establishments into the market.

‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ is a well-known fairytale, originated in Britain. It is a story of Jack, and how he discovers the land of a ‘Giant’ in the sky, that is reached by stalks from magic beans. As Jack moves through the giant’s world, we see how he sees and experiences things in a new manner.

Giants are common ‘otherworldly’ creatures of British folklore, believed to be human ancestors. Although a myth, it is exciting to envision how the world, our cities, would look like if we existed with the Giants. This idea is similar to the concept of the worm's eye view. 

When we view things with our eye level on the ground (like a worm), we see the world from a three-point perspective. Every object looks mighty and structures look endless. With the change in scale, our understanding of elements will change as we start viewing them from the bottom up. Our way of perceiving and experiencing the world and its elements will transform drastically.

Can you imagine a scenario where Jack climbs to the top of the giant beanstalk and finds a restaurant there, what would it look like to him?

Brief: The challenge was to design a ‘Giant’ restaurant, based on the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, where everything is gigantic, compared to the human scale.

This challenge was to play on perception. Using the right tools, the scale of elements can be altered with a skew vision and the image they create. The idea is for visitors to experience navigation and eating in a colossal environment, where all sense of privacy and security may feel lost. 

One of the major aspects of creative projects comes with the usage of space. Taking that as the focal point and distorting it, we can create a space where the size is disproportionate to the living elements of the place. 

With this theme, challenges of breaking normal anthropometry of the space would come up. These projects require an open mind that would handle structural anomalies with feasible solutions, without changing the initial idea. Taking one of those possibilities onto butcher boards, we will be able to analyze the dos and don’ts for the project, without limiting the creative aspects.

The jury for the competition consisted of esteemed designers, professionals, and academicians from around the world. The Lead Jurors for the competitions were as follows: 

Reutov Dmitry, Chief Designer, ReutovDesign studio, Russia

Some of the Best of competition projects are as follows:

Winning Project: The Faba Restaurant

By: Natalia Suchy, Ewelina Palka & Monika Marszoł

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Description: The Faba restaurant was created with accommodations for guests of any age. In the project, we paid special attention to the human-nature relationship and its impact on the human body. The story of Jack and the Magic Beans was an important aspect, as we felt extremely inspired by the young hero's climbing over the plant and the way he experienced the space.

Jury Comments: Very nice concept and appropriate for the users- fun and playful. Nice presentation. The modular systems offer good clustering of spaces, although scalar variations could have provided more functional spaces for various programs. 

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People’s Choice: The Jungle

By: Yoojin Kim & Cathy Dong

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Description: 'The Jungle' addresses the giants’ kingdom with the play of the scale of a day-to-day object, and thereby creates an intimidating fantasy world. The gigantic qualities of the building and the bridge are intended to draw people in by activating curiosity and evoking just enough intimidation.

Jury Comment: Very convoluted and unresolved building but it results in new interesting places that would be kids appropriate. Complex and ambitious concept and form that could use more developed drawings and representations.

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Editor’s Choice: Scaled Up

By: Angy Elderiny & Yara Hesham

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Description: An architectural interpretation of a restaurant inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk. The curiosity of exploring a new world, and the reality of not perfectly fitting into it.

Jury Comment: the interiors we interesting and design with children in mind. Well-developed details but not as well-developed overall concept and spaces.

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