Hope everyone is having a great day so far!
Branching off from my previous blog, Post Food Scarcity, I wanted to more deeply explore something that I eluded to in that post, and that is the Community Kitchen. How a shared space amongst the community fosters a sense of togetherness while also helping to reduce the redundancies of appliances and tools since not everyone would need to procure their own. Is it possible for everyone to come together in such a way? And how does that impact the daily lives and spatial needs of the individual? Find out here:
What’s your opinion on this take? Could you envision yourself living in such a community? If not, what would you change? Always happy to hear other opinions, ideas, complaints, and experiences, so feel free to share! The more viewpoints I can experience, the stronger the ideas! 💪
If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read and hope you have a great rest of your day!!
In my post-soviet country, there are still apartments where bath and kitchen are shared. These are always more poor people that live there. From what I gather these become places where conflicts happen quite a lot. Maybe it’s because of higher alcohol consumption, but I can only see this working in already bonded community. Maybe problem is that right now, they have it like that due to lack of money and is not by a choice.
I think that’s an astute observation.
The idea of greater shared common space in a city appeals to me, though I’m very aware that it has to be abundant enough to meet demand even during high demand periods, and it has to be voluntary instead of just obligatory due to lack of facilities.
I set up a mailing list for my apartment building, and I find that there are some people who like the routine socializing that occurs, and others who really just want their solitude. I think before moving to kitchen space, I wish more apartments had a shared-use tool room, since this is something most people need at various times, though not nearly as often as kitchen space. I think it would need to have at least someone responsible for enforcing a shared expectation of cleanliness, though selected democratically so people don’t feel beholden to this person or group.
I think shared kitchen space and exercise space would work well if social structure developed around their management. Something like, “I want to use the big kitchen next week since my family is coming over for Eid.” “Have you been using the little kitchen lately? I think Davka requires folks to have used the little kitchen and cleaned up at least twice in the last month to schedule the big kitchen. Or you could get Raul to vouch for you, he uses the big kitchen every Friday.”
Those are some good points to chew on.
In ways, I think, the community will grow to fit the demand, and vice versa. Purposing and repurposing as demand trends are learned. Communication will be more important than ever, but I can see that as a positive to force people into growing that skill, one that could solve a lot of problems.
Finding some way to avoid forcing one another to share a space and balancing that with better resource management is a tricky space to navigate. I understand the want for solitude, but I wonder how much of that stems from the inability to self-organize into a better social group?
I believe at some point social interaction does need to be encouraged and that there needs to be space held for it. Also, that people need the autonomy to live life as they choose. I think how those factors are balanced out will add flavor to the community though.
Very true. An already bonded community is key to making that work. Headcanon was already established communities, so the bond would be present already. I believe that there will always be some conflict, but as long as people are not forced to live together (as in mentioned, a lack of money to afford something better), then most people will either learn to live with each other and share or find somewhere else where they are a better fit.
Would make for some interesting story points, the clashes of personality around these shared spaces.
The alcoholics win the fight by having more weaponry lol
Tangentially related: I like the idea of “volxküche” and other such communal food efforts and even though the food was often bland, I never minded the canteen in university. But I absolutely loath normal restaurants.
Yes sometimes the food is good, but everything around it: the long waiting for food, the isolating table arrangement, the often frustrated waiters etc. is a complete turn-off for me. Even the nicest places both in regards to ambience and food are just ruined by the totally alienating mode of food preparation and delivery (and high price tag in addition).
Yet somehow people claim to love going to restaurants… this has actually put some serious strain on some romantic relationships of mine in the past 😬
And talking to some restaurant owners (I used to work in kitchens as a side job some years ago) always told the same story: The a la carte method is bad for income and forces you to cut all sorts of corners that makes the quality of the food worse, and landlords ask for insane rents at the popular places, which really drives up prices.
You know, I can think of plenty of experiences where communal food halls were lively, fun affairs (either serving or attending), but never really realized the lack of festiveness in most restaurants. Maybe that’s why I enjoy cooking at home more.
the isolating table arrangement
one thing that helps mitigate this somewhat is finding a place with long tables / bench seating (where multiple groups are forced to share a table) creating a slightly more communal atmosphere
Yet somehow people claim to love going to restaurants
there is a big cultural split in the approach to restaurants between Western and Eastern societies – US especially choose restaurants for “atmosphere” and “status” (“the place to be seen”) whereas Chinese choose their restaurants by how loud and busy they are (people enjoying good food make more noise)
hand-in-hand with the community kitchen is shared dining (and the rotation of chores, prep, cooking, cleaning, etc.)
- the refectories of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed (1974)
- Jack Kerouac’s boarding-house now co-living for creatives – Kirsten Dirksen
- Jerri Jerreat, Benny and Shiya Are Leaving
- 5 Solarpunk Communities That Will Bring You Hope – The Solarpunk Scene
I love this idea, but I’m already sold on the idea of co-living and stuff like that. I need to make some church lady friends to see if it’s feasible to use the church kitchen (not a religious myself but I grew up isolated in the sticks and that is my only frame of reference for how community is run: the cabal of lil old church ladies.) In the meantime, I think tool libraries should be carrying the weirder or less-used kitchen appliances (waffle irons/makers, dehydrators, giant crock pots, canning supplies). I’d still have a problem of lack of counter space in my lil apartment kitchen, but it wouldn’t be compounded by eaten cabinet space.
