I have a vision for a business strategy + design firm for Portland, that will cull together the rich raw creative talent of our city and marry it with business opportunity. Occasionally, I can even see what it looks like, and my office space definitely has a working test kitchen. Why? Because I can best describe things -- from experiences to people -- in the vernacular of food. Everything takes on a taste, color, feel. Synthesis can be best described in food combination -- sea salt caramels anyone? And because food substances lend themselves to rapid prototyping.
This vision became a bit more robust today when a friend sent me a link to the Salt Water Farm in Lincolnville. She thought I would enjoy their feasts and classes -- which I likely will. But what most struck me was the description of their kitchen:
"The space is designed around the concept of a summer kitchen. Native to the North, these kitchens are set away from the house, near the garden. They are a place where vegetables are gathered on tabletops, summer berries are preserved for the fruitless months of winter, loaves of bread are baked and set to rest, fish are filleted and smoked, tomatoes are left to warm in the sun and where a chef is free to cook as he/she pleases, undisturbed."
To me, this reads messiness and creativity at its best. Beautiful.
Yet, some order is required. Preserving requires sterilization. Space is a prerequisite of dough.
It got me thinking, can we design work spaces that mirror the summer kitchen -- bringing together the messiness of creativity with the order of productivity?
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