Chi Xu
About
Education:
Royal College of Art, MA Interior Design, London, UK. / 2019 - 2021
Beijing University of Chemical Technology, BA Product Design/2015-2019
Work experience:
QC Maker Education Co., Ltd, lecturer,2017-2018/Beijing, China
Beijing Design Week, Design assistant,2017 /Beijing, China
Exhibition:
2019, Kortrijk creative week, Kortrijk, Belgium
2020, Work In Process Show, Royal College of Art, UK
Statement
Can a town's changing food culture provide a new identity for its future? When the unique food feature is fading away, and the retail shops struggle to survive, what are the new retail models for the future?
Like most other traditional towns in the UK, Northampton's traditional food culture has been forgotten and lost by locals and replaced by countless fast-food restaurants and exotic food cultures in the high street.
With many retail stores struggling to survive in the town centre, the project seeks to explore Northampton's changing identity through food and provide bookable dining spaces inside local shops, which the local community can use for parties, celebrations and social gatherings.
In this way, local people will be able to explore and celebrate their local food identity, local business owners will have the opportunity to adapt traditional retail business models to involve more diverse uses of space and income generation.
Research Storyboard
The narrative storyboard brings together the essential elements in my research.
The father and daughter are looking for something to eat, but Northampton is filled with Fast food, and foreign cuisine is not authentic. It's not representing Northampton food identity.
The interesting thing is, historically, Northampton bakeries used to be a public kitchen, people didn't have an oven at home in the past, so they took food to the bakery and used the bakery to cook.
Today, Northampton struggled with most people have a kitchen at home, but dining space is quite limited as a growing population of single people live in a bedsit and one-bedroom apartment, so they don't have more space at home to invite people for dinner.
Concept Collage
Creative Asset
Axonometric Drawing
This Axonometric drawing shows three structures, Chinese, Indian and Polish dining spaces. In the centre of the drawing, it shows how they can be dissembled into small pieces to fit inside the van. At the edge of the drawing, it shows how they occupy different parts of the tattoo shop alongside the tattoo artist.
Profile Drawing
User Experience Storyboard
Material Composition
Summary
In conclusion, I propose providing dining space for people living in small properties. Inside the dining space, all three different structures are about reinventing and rediscover Northampton's food identity as there are more diverse cultures in Northampton. You learn about it when you are going to space. All in its between, it's a tattoo shop. This kind of juxtaposition can create a memorable dining experience.