01) observations
• Many older individuals live alone and have lost the family unit.
• The loss of the family unit and removes the practical emotional use for cooking.
• The loss in financial stability + the loss of the family unit + downsizes make dining areas to quickly lose their necessity.
• As a result, living rooms function as transient dining areas which make shared meals within homes more awkward.
• The physical loss of the dining table + the emotional loss of not eating with others, makes eating a purely physical process and detracts from the “homeyness” of a residence.
• In this situation of going from collective to individual, people express needs for feedback from some type of third party.
02) significance
The collective eating experience is emotionally significant and acts as a medium for important interaction. Eating alone is physically and emotionally cumbersome and turns the activity into a soulless and robotic process.
03) opportunity
Social and living conditions often change as we grow older. These new conditions haven’t been addressed in the context of moving from the collective to solitary dining experience.
04) general objective
Bring back the emotional and physical affordances of dining collectively to dining alone.
05) specific objective
• Makes individual dining without a designated dining space more sanitary and less physically awkward.
• Makes individual dining more enjoyable
• Provide an emotional experience.
• Encourages collective dining.
06) Project attributes or requirements
• do-able within a few months
• Considers peoples needs of feedback, and interaction from a third party while performing basic or repetitive actions.
Here is a sketch of a scenario relevant to my opportunity. Individuals at Parkview grew up in the time of family dinners and just large families in general. As they aged, their family slowly disappeared from their immediate lives. Also, Parkview apartments are small and don’t have dining areas. In sum, eating alone in your living room is no fun.
So when you’re alone you might watch some TV, stair at the fish on the table and read the cereal box, or listen to music and browse the web. In all these circumstances, the food isn’t the main focus.
