Pipeaurant
TEAM: Yibo Xu – Chinese – University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Challenging traditional restaurant serving mode
The project “Pipeaurant” has the ambition to renovate the circulation of the meal in conventional restaurants. Initially, customers would use devices (e.g. iPad) to send their requests to the kitchen. Then, instead of served by waiters/waitresses directly, meals would be sealed into “capsules” and then sent out through pipes connecting kitchen and consuming area located at different levels. After consumption finished, the capsules, as well as wastes and used cutleries, would move through another set of pipes to a recycling level, where staffs would take “capsules” and cutleries back to the kitchen level for future use. Inspired by garbage chute system within apartments, the mechanism of “Pipeaurant” relies on gravity and spherical objects’ rolling. The diameter, length and gradient of each pipe fragment would be designed deliberately to guarantee the completion of the process without stoppage. Simultaneously pipes also become one crucial part of interior design as they would visible for customers. Based on this new method, consumption area within the restaurant would no longer be filled with numerous staffs and congestion would be significantly reduced. Moreover, regularity and directionality of physical pipes would make transaction of meals more efficient and precise as well.