williammc.com/mon

National Culinary Institute

Professor Kevin Alter
Spring 2017
24 weeks
University of Texas at Austin

National Culinary Institute
Reykjavik, Iceland

At a site at the intersection of the working and gentrified harbor, the cultural district of Harpa, and the tourist face of a cruise ship dock, this project explored a new National Culinary Institute to preserve and project the talents of Icelandic chefs both domestically and internationally. This project ultimately was a project of curation of historic and unique preservation techniques which reference Iceland’s historic scarcity and have a depth of potential in 21st century culinary-arts beyond the shock-value proteins (whale, horse, shark, puffin) with which Icelandic food is often stereotyped. Through research, four representative techniques were identified- Smoking, Drying, Infuse/Brining, and Fermenting. Within the project, these techniques are scaffolded within articulated “hearths” below a large vegetated truss which houses a greenhouse and shelters four competition kitchens and five small markets for the public engagement of the products and techniques of the Institute. At the edge of the water, the project intends to act as a beacon out and in, and provide for a space for the domestic growth of Iceland’s chef community even as it projects their techniques to visitors and locals alike.