Food culture + built environment : exploring China, Thailand, and Japan : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Abstract

Culture and diversity are increasingly gaining attention as international interaction grows in commerce, academics, sports, travel, and so forth. An understanding or awareness of cultural differences and similarities is becoming more valuable in the design of environments, products and services. Even the most basic aspects of everyday life become an appropriate discourse for issues of diversity and culture. While food and built environment have intimate roles in the daily lives of people, culture permeates and shapes all aspects of both. As an interior design student, I understand that design lies interwoven with and between culture and the built environment. My honors thesis, "Food Culture + Built Environment," is centered on exploring the relationship between food, culture, and design in China, Thailand, and Japan by investigating the built environments for dining. I also examined the representations of Chinese, Thai, and Japanese food cultures in American society. Literature review on the topic, interviews of individuals with international experiences from the given cultures, and the use of ethnographic observations of dining environments constructed my informational foundation. With the gathered data, I employed my intellect and knowledge of interior design to seek clarity in this topic layered with significant obscurity and complexity. Ultimately, I have only scratched the surface of the relationship between food culture and the built environment, but my new knowledge and perspective have been greatly expanded — an accomplishment worth the endeavor.