Cultural Tableware

Product design

In collaboration with Lotte van Laatum, the teenage girls from Catering Club 1001 in Utrecht have designed their own table linen and plates for their cooking club.

By Editor Design.nl / 03-06-2009

Every Sunday a group of young girls with different cultural backgrounds come together in the Youth Art Centre Kanaleneiland in Utrecht to learn how to cook.

Through assignments of their Catering Club 1001 they also learn entrepreneurial skills. The Youth Art Centre started in 2007 as a place to discover and develop creative talent. It aims to become the cultural hotspot of Kanaleneiland.

Nieuw Utrecht, an association for new urban development in Utrecht, wanted to support the initiative of the Youth Art Centre by starting a co-creative project. They invited Utrecht-based designer Lotte van Laatum to collaborate with the girls to find a way to contribute to the development of the Art Centre. The result is a tableware project which creates an opportunity for the Catering Club and the Art Centre to present their work.

The girls worked together with Van Laatum on the design of the table linen and the plate. Five tablecloths and 160 plates will be used by the Catering Club for their assignments. Cooking traditions, favourite dishes, their own identity and business aspects like presentation and cooperative style were discussed in five workshops. The design refers to the rich cultural diversity which can be found in Kanaleneiland. The girls made a composition of mono-coloured tableware elements from different cultures. By painting these elements in the same colour a new family of objects was created. This collection was photographed for the design of the table linen and plate. The plate also refers to the traditional Dutch tiles by using the circular pattern which normally represents old Dutch scenes and the blue and white colour scheme.

The project will be presented during a neighbourhood picnic on 21 June 2009 at the Youth Art Centre at the Peltlaan 172 in Utrecht.

The project is a collaboration between designstudio Lotte van Laatum, Youth Art Centre Kanaleneiland and Association Nieuw Utrecht and is supported by the city of Utrecht, community office Southewest and Rabobank e.o.