Slow Food / Sagan Piechota Architecture

© Matthew Millman

Architects: Sagan Piechota Architecture
Location: Fort Mason Pavilion, San Francisco, USA
Project Team: Mike Eggers, Andy Payne, Vivian Hsu, Ben Frombgen, Jeremy Tsai, Rich Porter, Charlotte Hofstetter, Daniel Piechota, Loring Sagan
Client: Slow Food Nation
Project Area: 73.6 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Rendering: Andy Payne
Photographs: Matthew Millman

Rendering © Andy Payne

Slow Food Nation 2008–the country’s first major sustainable foods celebration took place over Labor Day weekend at Fort Mason San Francisco. Individual “Taste Pavilions” fabricated from repurposed materials were designed by the Bay Area’s most celebrated design firms. Sagan Piechota’s design for the pickle-and-chutney booth—assembled just days before the event—featured walls made of pickle jars and a ceiling composed of 3,000 mason jar lids suspended from wires.

© Matthew Millman

A total of 3,024 metal canning lids became an undulating and dynamic “ceiling” suspended with filament, Velcro and earring backs. The “walls” created with multiple rows of jars simply attached to wood studs and arranged to encourage visitor participation by taking and leaving recipes showcased within the jars themselves.

© Matthew Millman

Over the course of a month and ten “build sessions” that resembled old-fashioned knitting circles, over 100 volunteers contributed their help, ideas and stories to the completion of the Pickle Pavilion. The community that formed throughout this journey would become the most valuable aspect of our involvement and distinctly reflective of the Slow Food movement.