Saibal Dutta

“A circuit for transience” is the response to Carlton’s multi-cultural & transient demographic.

It hopes to connect, migrants, international students and the existing community together, using food as a vehicle for cultural exchange. The nutritional centre teaches the community how to grow and cook. The urban design becomes part of the teaching tool, encouraging the notion of urban take-back, using a series of lightweight pavilions the wider community can use space once reserved for the car, to grow food – ‘guerrilla gardening’ giving them agency in times of hardship. The piazza is programmed to host public gatherings, BBQs, concerts, protests or even the circus.

The sunken street is the first floor of the CHC. The tone of the allotments hopes to encourage micro commerce, giving agency to people wanting a fresh start; want to start a café? Have some art to sell? Or even some art to display? in its current incarnation it’s as transient farmers market.

Ultimately the structure enables the colour-filled messiness of our lives to occur, it gives transient people a place to screw in and replenish their stores, a circuitry which connects people to people using food as a vehicle.