Elswick Kitchen is a community-focused venture which aims to improve the living standards of people within Elswick by tackling the areas high deprivation and poverty rates through job-creation and improving social connections within the wider community. The programme was developed through intensive study and investigation of the local community of Elswick and what challenges they face.

The “Kitchen” itself comprises of an indoor market hall, food hall and function and entertaining spaces with a calming roof garden above. The roof garden is flanked by spaces for Islamic prayer. The prayer spaces twist to face Qibla (the direction of the building Ka'bah in the Sacred Mosque, Mecca, Saudi Arabia). The “Kitchen” itself is surrounded by allotments where members of the community can grow food to sell within the market. The site also houses a biomass energy plant, which uses crops that are grown on-site to generate renewable, sustainable energy for homes within the community.

(Studio 03; Urban Stitching: Reinventing the Industrial Landscape)