SELECTED PROJECT – LOBSTER KITCHEN
Lobster Kitchen – Parise Luca (Berlin, Germany)
What is a “Dream Kitchen”?
In the world we live in, it’s almost natural to let our imagination take us into the future when pondering this question, envisioning a high-tech, immersive kitchen brimming with “smart” technology, connected to the much-discussed “internet of things.”
However, this futuristic vision of a kitchen is far from truly representing a “Dream Kitchen.” These futuristic spaces are often inaccessible, exclusive (due to high cost), and creators of new demands, creating the impression that the present is distant from this ideal, distancing us from our “dream,” and from ourselves.
I firmly believe that the true “Dream Kitchen” already exists here and now. Its materialization doesn’t necessarily involve bringing new elements or technologies to the table (after all, we’ve been cooking for over 40,000 years). Instead, it depends largely on our ability to let go of this notion of a “Dream Kitchen” that doesn’t exist and strive to make it exist with what we have.
This isn’t just a plastic strategy but also a social one, aiming to break out of a consumption loop and constantly seeking something unattainable, bringing us closer to a more sustainable vision of the future. In short, it involves letting go of the idea of a “dream kitchen.”
But what exactly does it mean to let go of this conception of a “Dream Kitchen”?
In my view, it means abandoning a static (or even sacralized) view of the kitchen and questioning what we understand as a kitchen and how it should function. Why does the stove have to be here? Why does it have to be at this height? Why does the fridge open on this side? Why in one room of the house?
Of course, we have functional answers to these questions, but if we create space for a poetic vision of uses, we open up endless possibilities that lead us to more interesting, fun, and potential-filled places. With this spirit in mind, the idea of the lobster kitchen emerges. Built entirely with common elements of a cheap kitchen – a simple refrigerator, a four-burner gas stove, an old cupboard, and a sink – it refuses to follow the “expected layout.”
The “lobster kitchen” is my attempt to create a dream kitchen, here, now, with what I have. It teaches me that by simply rearranging objects and refusing to use them as they were designed, value is created. Aesthetic value, social value, financial value – clearly, this kitchen has more value than the sum of its individual parts, which is the most powerful testimony, as an artist, I believe I can offer: to use aesthetics to create alternatives for our world – after all, isn’t that what a painter does when combining pigment, oil, and canvas to create fiction (a dream)? This is the kitchen of my dreams, and it is in the realm of the possible.
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Luca is part of the AVENTURA group (aventura.cargo.site), which explores building and urbanism from an aesthetic perspective. Since 2011, Luca has founded projects that bridge art and architecture, received awards, and exhibited both individually and collectively in Brazil and internationally, as well as being featured in different publications.