Taste of Place: Designing Immersive Culinary Spaces Through Terroir

Kelsey Fisher // Advisor: Telsa Love

Taste of Place: Designing Immersive Culinary Spaces Through Terroir

Food brings people together—but the spaces where we gather to eat tell stories, too. This thesis explores the intersections of food, architecture, and sensory design, focusing on how dining environments can express regional identity and terroir. Terroir—often associated with wine—refers to the interplay of environment, tradition, and human craftsmanship that gives food and drink their distinctive character. It reflects how land, climate, and culture shape not only flavor but also the spaces in which food is prepared, shared, and celebrated. Drawing on research in foodways, regional architecture, and sensory experience, this project investigates the shared values of food and architecture—craft, materiality, and connection. It proposes that dining spaces should reflect terroir by embedding environmental and cultural narratives into their design. Through features such as sensory tasting rooms, edible gardens, and areas for preservation and production, the project envisions immersive environments that deepen our relationship to food and place—celebrating not only what we eat, but how, where, and with whom we gather.