SCALED UP!

Storytime!

"Thousands of years ago, a huge object fell from the sky. Humans tried to understand what that thing was until they realized it fell from 'The Giants', gigantic creatures who lived in the Heavens far from all the chaos, greed, ignorance, and filth of the humans. Humans always heard the stories of The Giants, wishing to someday visit them or imagining themselves to be living among them. As time went by, the object lay down on the floor, unmovable and taking up so much space.

Until Jeffrey Bezos got together with 4 architects to take advantage of the object and turn it into an abstract experience for the humans, with the purpose of creating a connection between the earthly world and the Heavens. People from all over the world came to visit this place just to catch a glimpse of the life above, the life of the giants. And since the object fell in a food district, Bezos thought “Why not make it a restaurant.

However, as time went by, the effect of the human-life started showing in the restaurant. Ignorance, chaos, and gluttony started infiltrating the restaurant leaking upwards from the ground into the restaurant. The heavenly object was unable to protect itself from the influence of the humans, and nor could the humans themselves protect it. They tried everything in their power to keep the object untouched, clean, and heavenly until they realized there's nothing really they could do. They had to accept that being on this earth was a curse.. Not just for them, but for the object as well."

Interpretation

The restaurant will be a metaphor for Jack's journey from the ground to the sky. It will symbolize the elites, the giants living on top of everyone else, having privileges that no one else has, seeing everyone below them, feeling more in power, while also symbolizing the poor, the humans, living on the ground, underneath all the privileged giants, seeing nothing but themselves and their ignorance, having nothing that is of much value, but curious to find out what takes place in the heavens.

In conclusion, it symbolizes the social hierarchy and classicism we live in and how they are being reinforced by capitalism.

The restaurant will be divided into three floors. With curves and an open plan, everything around the corner could be a surprise, being in the restaurant is an experience in itself, triggering curiosity and skewing the human scale that we're used to. With double heights and split levels, light from above could be seen on the dim ground floor with a low ambiance. And as one climbs the stairs, they get to experience different feelings: better lighting, more and bigger windows, larger clear heights, and huge skylights. One will feel over the world and above everyone else.

The restaurant also raises the philosophical question of: Are humans controlled or in control? Are the "Giants" controlling them in a way to move up the stairs or "beanstalk" until they reach the upper floors, or are they the ones with fuelled curiosity who want to find out what's up?

The Design

Exterior Form

Everything we included in the design was directly linked to the concept and the story that we created. We wanted to create a restaurant that stands out of the context, so to create a contrasting mass, we created a building full of nothing but curves, no right angles whatsoever. Since it’s an object that fell from the sky, we wanted to create a perfect shape, we wanted to find the perfect mass. After long hours of discussions, we settled on either the sphere (because it’s derived from the circle) or the cube (because it’s viewed as the ultimate volume). After discussing our vision and concept, we decided to select the circle, but instead of transforming it into a sphere, we transformed it into a cylinder. This way, we could create a stable structure mimicking its fall from the sky and how it collided with earth, transforming how it originally looked. The cylinder gave us the feel we desired; the minimalistic, abstracted shape, that does not need to explain itself because it’s just too heavenly. A mass made from a circle, the perfect shape; the shape that’s made by infinite points, edges, and tangents; everyone’s favorite mathematical miracle.

The curves in the cylinder enabled us to achieve the desired result of wanting every wall inside the building to incite curiosity within every person and give them an exceptional experience. This way, they will always feel curious as to what exists at the end of those interior walls.

Interior 

To exaggerate the heights within the restaurant. A series of split levels was created to emphasize the clear heights within the building. Every platform looks like it’s floating, and they alternate radially to ensure that they do not vertically align over each other creating huge clear heights above certain areas. This way, the people sitting on the platforms at the top can clearly see the ones below, but the opposite isn’t possible. This mimics the idea of surveillance by the giants since the giants are the ones in power.

This restaurant symbolizes the idea of classicism, and how classicism gives power and privilege to certain people who come above others creating a hierarchy of power. This hierarchy remains reinforced by capitalism. The restaurant is a metaphor for distance between social classes and for the power given to those at the top of the hierarchy.

The interior circular walls of the restaurant are layered in an in-and-out way to create segmented extrusions from within. Those segments are used to create the window slits, and they’re also used for the platforms extrusions. We wanted to create an exterior form that looks very minimalistic and simple, but attracts people because it looks different from its surroundings. However, once a person enters the building, we wanted them to be bombarded by the interior. This is why this idea for the interior was created to give it a more chaotic feel.

“Stairway to Heaven”

The stairs are also all curved, taking people through a magical journey as they go up floor by floor. They are painted bright red, to give them a sense of danger or call to action; “Go up the stairs”.

The stairs are designed to seem floating. The handrails are made of pure glass to be as seamless as possible. They are painted bright red. Red for action; “Go climb the stairs”, but also for the thrill; “Those stairs seem dangerous.”, or maybe a sense of danger.. Humans love spicy danger.

The stairs have an incomparable clear height above them, creating an indescribable feeling, symbolizing Jack’s journey upwards.

However, since the stairs will thus be such a hazard for the waiters in the restaurants, a conveyer belt goes through the entire building passing by every platform. After placing an order, waiters assigned to every platform will wait to send the order to the kitchen and will receive the orders via the conveyer belt that is attached to the curved wall of the building. This motion of the spiral conveyor built will mimic the journey of Jack up and down the beanstalk.

As the people go up the stairs, they experience the journey from the earth to the Heavens, where the Giants live. They experience more physical power due to their position and ability to see everyone else underneath them sitting at the lower platforms, and they also get to see brighter since more light exists thanks to the huge skylight and window slits. Fewer slits exist on the lower platforms due to blocked sunlight from the skylight and fewer window slits. This makes the lower platforms dimmer.

Circulation

The circulation inside the building is very fluid. This is because all walls are curved creating a sense of curiosity since no one can see what exists at the other sides of the curved walls. There are also multiple possible paths for everyone to choose from. This keeps the people very mentally stimulated and aware.

This triggers a certain question: “Do people have the choice of action or are they controlled by society and power?” Do the people choose this path because they truly want to? Or are we designing the restaurant to make them desire the upper platforms? Heh, debatable.

“Blinding Lights”

The light reaching the upper floors is a lot stronger due to the skylight in the ceiling, the recurrent window slits, and the artificial light in the building. The lower floors have dimmer lights and low ambiance, symbolizing how upper-class people have more luxurious and bright lives, while lower-class people live dark, unsatisfying lives.

Materiality

The materials used in the building are Fiber-reinforced aerated lightweight concrete. The stairs are made of wood that is painted red.