Image courtesy Rockwell Group
Architecture and design firm Rockwell Group has created a template for outdoor dining—an adaptable kit-of-parts, accommodating a range of restaurants and street conditions following COVID-19.
The solution offers five scales of cost-effective interventions, from minimal to more complex, and provides restaurants the flexibility to easily customize their own outdoor environments.
The outdoor restaurant kit includes four parts. According to Dezeen, it includes “a dining booth, a sanitation station, wooden decking panels to cover pavements, and plant-covered street fencing. These are accompanied by accessory details like lighting, umbrellas, fans and planter benches. The existing restaurant would be limited to employees.”
“Rockwell Group knew from the first days of this pandemic and the ensuing mandates for social distancing that we would have to make adjustments to how we dine out until the public health crisis has abated,” the Rockwell Group wrote on its website. “This includes, first and foremost, creating a safe place for restaurant workers and guests, and better utilizing space outside restaurants during this period of social distancing, which will continue to evolve.”
Inspired by open-air cafes, and drawing on modular work, the concept—including street zoning, space for sanitation and restaurant equipment, flooring, barriers, shading, lighting, and furniture—would allow for expanded dining that flows into the sidewalk and part of the abutting streetscape.
“We have been in discussion with restaurant operators and staff, and the New York City Hospitality Alliance, about creating spaces that help jump-start business, while creating places for diners to feel safe and comfortable,” Rockwell Group wrote.
