Craft Restaurant and Community Kitchen

Carrie Senft

Website:http://www.carriesenft.com

Email:senfc485@newschool.edu

Degree(s): BA, Psychology and Hispanic Studies, Hamilton College

Craft is a restorative community space that serves as a seafood restaurant, culinary school, and educational resource center for the city of Detroit. It occupies the first two floors in a 1924 building in Corktown, one of the city's oldest residential neighborhoods. Craft strives to honor the historic commercial fishing industry that was once a major part of Detroit's economy. As a restaurant, Craft serves fresh seafood, and as a culinary school it teaches the community to source and prepare seafood responsibly and safely.

        Inspired by a maritime craft, the design uses repurposed shipyard materials where possible, including shipyard rope, blackened steal, and stained recycled oak. A system of suspended rope screens differentiates between programmatic spaces. On one end of the first floor is the commercial kitchen, and on the other is dining. These two spaces are figuratively woven together in the center of the space by the culinary school.

          The rope screens are arranged in a way that weaves patrons through the entire space physically and visually. They converge above the central culinary school to create an interwoven lighting feature that represents a community woven together through the understanding of the entire culinary process, from sourcing, to preparation, to enjoyment.

          Faculty for the project:Bren Galvez-Moretti