Under the St. Teresa Church in Queens is an community space used by multiple groups within its diverse immigrant neighbourhood. actLAB partnered with community advocates to deliver not only a community kitchen, but a flexible space that caters to the needs of each user group. A play space is revealed when a closet door opens, storage for arts and crafts doubles as writing surfaces for meetings and tutorial classes, a screen comes down for movie nights while the kitchen serves as an essential part of each event held in the space.
Spice Up Your Kitchen Design:
This type of space, as we have studied is typical to the undercroft of New York City churches. We hope to build more of these in the future.