Porto: Faculty of Food Part 2 Project 2008 Richard Bower University of Plymouth | UK A response to the vibrant cultural and visceral contextual tones of Porto.A proposal in anticipation of the possibilities of its people and place, anticipating a rediscovery of local traditions, festivals; pride and belief.An exploration of thresholds and boundaries between pubic and private, streets and squares.A celebration of life, work and food at every scale; in the productivity of a whole region, the strength of a cohesive community, and the ambition of an individual.Instead of an imposing foreground, a proposal for a supporting background; intimately reconnecting existing city fabric and form with new space and possibilities. Richard’s proposition for a Faculty of Food in the historic centre of Porto explores a symbiotic, visceral relationship between landscape and settlement, expressed through daily rituals of the selling, preparation and eating of food. Building from discussions with local inhabitants and a study of the surrounding landscape, his work was supported through parallel studies on the nature of place and materiality. Taking a critical stance toward the inherited conventions of Porto, his proposition reinterprets the nature of public place, interior and the boundary in-between through a language responsive to underlying cultural, social, tectonic and topographic qualities of place. Robert Brown