Industrial Design

A trip through South-East Asia in spring 2020 laid the foundation for this bachelor thesis. It was above all the streetfood kitchens that exerted a special fascination on the designer, as people from all walks of life come together there. With their mobile trolleys, the cooks supply the inhabitants of the cities with food where it is needed. If the inhabitants meet at street kitchens, everyone is equal. They take their food together, spend time together and get into conversation, which they would probably not do under other circumstances. The street kitchens are an important part of this Far Eastern culture, not only in culinary but also in social terms. Street food kitchens are also impressive in terms of the operators. Most of these mobile trolleys are designed to change location at any time to visit several districts a day. In various configurations they can be moved by hand, with an attached bicycle drive or fully motorized. Equipment, colour scheme and decoration also help the operator to stand out from the crowd. The designer wanted to use the collected impressions of his journey to create a kind of streetfood kitchen that can be adapted to the needs of the western world, used in everyday life and for leisure. Above all, however, this streetfood kitchen should also create a place that encourages interaction and contributes to a healthy society. In common terms, eating is the simplest way to generate connections between people. With the help of the Design Thinking Process, the designer came to the conclusion that a streetfood kitchen as known from the Asian region cannot be implemented in the same way due to the high degree of regulation and therefore decided to design a kitchen unit with a bar table function that is tailored to private use. The developed module offers the greatest possible mobility, as its compact design means that it can easily be accommodated in a vehicle and, depending on requirements, can be transported on foot or by bicycle with the aid of a train system. In this way, the kitchen is brought into the public space in a mobile form and a meeting place is created that promotes social interaction. 

The MOOTbox is not only a practical utility item, but also a contribution to a more open, tolerant and communicative society.