Rapid Type Coffee Pod in San Francisco, California by Otaplus

Article source: Otaplus

After months of research into why prefabrication has not been the glowing success people had hoped it would be, a design team at the California College of the Arts (CCA) has developed an answer: mix prefabrication and CNC technology with the current trend of mobile food trucks. Rapid Type: A Mobile Coffee platform is their first prototype for a mobile, pre-fabricated food service pod.  Construction was completed in the Fall of 2010 as part of a studio co-taught by Kory Bieg and Andre Caradec.

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

• Architect: Otaplus
• Name of Project: Rapid Type Coffee Pod
• Location: San Francisco, California
• Project Design and Fabrication Lead: Kory Bieg and Andre Caradec
• CCA Design/Build Team: Amir Afifi, Jon Butler, Mark Campos, Michael Chang, Kate Ganim, Gabe Guerriero, Kelly Lawley, Liz Lessig, Richard Lovato, Erin McDonough, Matt Mochizuki, Jamie Pratt, Tyler Pew, Sergio Sandoval, Michael Wu

The studio was given a generous donation of Alpolic, which is a unique aluminum composite material manufactured by Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. In order to explore the full potential of the material, Kory and Andre decided to co-teach an experimental design studio with one goal: push the material as far as possible within the limits of currently available CNC fabrication technology.

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

Though Rapid Type targets the slow drip coffee movement, the larger agenda of the studio was to explore the gap between highly-designed prefabricated buildings and under-designed food trucks. Prefabrication remains a buzz word in the field of architecture, but has failed to deliver a reliable and cost-saving economic model for building construction. In fact, the only prefabricated structures that have performed consistently well are not buildings at all.

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

The appearance of food trucks has exploded in the past few years and their visibility is only continuing to grow. The studio decided to latch on to this growing trend by offering a new and unique design using proven methods of mass manufacturing. Rapid Type is a full-service mobile sales platform that offers high-design, ease of assembly, and full mobility. The project combines the best of prefabricated building construction mixed with the financial vitality of the food truck movement.

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

Render (Images Courtesy KoryBieg)

Render (Images Courtesy KoryBieg)

Images Courtesy KellyLawley

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

Images Courtesy KoryBieg

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Tags: California, San Francisco

Categories: Bar, Mixed use, Pavilion, Shop

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