Designing Food Spaces to Encourage Familiarity

By Beng Abella Lipsey

We moved to Switzerland sometime in 2013. It was my first time living outside the Philippines. Everything was new and different. As winter approached, the lack of sun and my non-familiarity with the place was making me homesick. It didn’t help that everything was more “expensive” in Switzerland. Shopping was not an alternative. Even eating out was not something I could do regularly, as a regular meal with a drink would cost me $20 to $30. The Swiss are famously reserved, mostly keeping to themselves and bustling along, especially since the cold weather also made everyone walk faster. I was feeling sad and lonely.

Basel Markthalle [3]

A few members of my American Women’s Club walking group introduced me to the Basel Markthalle Food Hall. We all stopped by one time for lunch, after a walk. I was amazed with finding a place where there was a variety of different ethnic food, offered via small stalls. A lot of the food available in the traditional Swiss restaurants are sausages, cheese, and bread. To top it all, the food was more affordable, ranging from $ 8 to $10 for a serving. I immediately zeroed in on the Thai stall and got myself a Pad Thai. I was in seventh heaven.

I later found out that the Markthalle was an old market structure, which was first redeveloped into a shopping mall. The scheme didn’t work out and the owners looked at other ways of using the place. They came up with the idea to host a food hall, offering a variety of ethnic cuisine… sushi, Argentinian empanadas, Ethiopian stew, the more traditional Swiss sausages, Alsatian flammkuchen.

This place became my go-to place. It was located near a tram stop, on my way to almost everywhere else. Even alone, I would stop by to get my regular dose of Thai food. On my way home, I would pass by and get a pack of sushi to take home for dinner. I got to be familiar with the different vendors, who represented such a variety of culture and ethnicity. Most of them were immigrants, offering a taste of their home country’s food. As I sat in one of the communal picnic-like tables, I also got to observe a lot of the people who came in for their meals. I encountered office workers, out for quick lunch. I saw mothers with their toddlers, coming from a play center also located in the same place. I got to see the other people who came in to shop in the fresh produce stall and retail outlets, surrounding the food hall area. I observed how most of Basel’s residents dressed very simply and comfortably. I noticed that the older people mostly came from a walk, despite the cold weather. Looking back, I reflected on how I felt so comfortable in Markthalle, even during those times that I was alone.

Basel Markthalle Food Stalls [2]

When I read the article on “Facilitating ‘light’ social interactions in public space” by Eijk and Engbersen [4], I remembered my Markthalle experience. The authors based their studies on the concept of “public familiarity,” which was earlier discussed by Blokland too, in his book “Urban Bonds, Social relationships in an inner-city neighborhood.” [1] The authors argued that in places where there is a high level of diversity, it is important to facilitate public familiarity [4]. This was quite a new idea for me, as I always thought that public places should be designed to encourage interaction instead of just familiarity. Familiarity does not necessitate a social exchange (e.g. a smile or a greeting). Rather, it starts with just being “familiar” or knowing who are the people in one’s neighborhood or public place, how they look, how they interact with others, how often they come to the said public space, etc. According to the authors, public familiarity is as important because it is a way by which people who are different from each other can evaluate others, evaluate themselves vis a vis these others, ultimately leading to an increased sense of social understanding of themselves and a feeling of safety too [4].

In their study, Eijk and Engbersen arrived at ways by which they saw familiarity being encouraged in public places like parks and shopping streets. First, they recommended that public spaces enable the maximum number of intersection between the activities and the paths taken by different types of people in the community [4]. I think Markthalle was successful in this regard because it introduced the concept of food stalls, which made it a basic common destination by a lot more people (as compared to a shopping mall). It was highly accessible, being located along a major tram stop. Since Basel was a highly walkable city, Markthalle was also walking distance for a lot of office workers in the area. The presence of a children’s play area for rent within the hall itself increased the number of women and children frequenting the food hall. In addition, planning for small less capital-intensive food stalls allowed the immigrant population to participate, easily starting up a food business.

The second recommendation was to encourage observation, usually by designing public spaces where people can see other people, from various angles [4]. Reflecting on my experience, the way the space was planned encouraged this. The tables used were large picnic tables, allowing for different groups of people to be seated together. The hall itself was circular in terms of design, allowing people who are eating to observe others who are milling around or waiting in line to order their food. Easily, you can identify the best food stalls by the length of the line of people waiting. The dining area also allowed for a visual connection to other places in the hall, like the children’s play area, the retail outlets, and the fresh produce stall. Even for someone who was alone like me, I was visually entertained by everything else that was happening. And just by observing, I got to learn more about how the Basel residents dressed, chose what to eat, socialized with others, interacted with their children, and cleaned up the space after each meal. Thinking back, I also felt safe and comfortable in the place, even though I was a new resident in the area.

My personal experience with places like Markthalle has strengthened my passion to continue to look for ways to use food experience to encourage social engagement and hopefully build communities. I also realize the importance of the physical dimension of planning for these food experience.

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Sources:

1. Talja Blokland-Potters, Urban Bonds : Social Relationships in an Inner City Neighborhood (Cambridge, UK : Polity Press ; Malden, MA : Distributed in the USA by Blackwell Pub., 2003., 2003).

2. 'Fabianpetignat.Ch', 2016) <http://fabianpetignat.ch/projekte/markthalle-basel>.

3. Felix Michel, 'The New Old Market Hall Is Celebrating Its One-Year Anniversary ', TagesWoche, October 21, 2014 2014.

4. Gwen van Eijk, and Radboud Engbersen, 'Facilitating ‘Light’ Social Interactions in Public Space: A Collaborative Study in a Dutch Urban Renewal Neighbourhood', Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, 5 (2011), 35-50.