KITEV & Refugees'Kitchen

In a Vietnam restaurant called Chay Village at 15.30, we were waiting our first meeting: Agnieszka Wnuczak and Christoph Stark. They are two passionate architects who want a society without “strangers”, and they are ready to do everything for the better society. That’s why they found a little association called Kitev and now they are doing projects about making connections between locals and refugees. It’s never easy to do but with a handful of people, a little bit of fund, and of course with a lot of positive energy; there is nothing they can’t achieve.

Firstly, we sat down and introduce ourselves, this week’s schedule and our aim for making this meeting. After a little chat, Mr. Stark and Mrs. Wnuczak helped us order our meals.

“Refugees Came With Hope”

“The refugees came with hope”, they said. According to them this hope is a lot of energy and power. According Mr. Stark, we should get into the action with this hope. we should open up our structure, we should co-work, think together, do things together. To do that, changing the structure of their organization is included. This is what their team are working in the last years, they focused on this topic with co-working.

They started to tell us more about the organisation which is started in 2014. They were thinking that more people were going to come but this wasn't a big topic at the time. But actually everything started in 2015 when Germany accepted more than one million refugees. The more people were coming to the country, the more refugees were going to be work with. The media had started to talk about that the entrance of this much refugees will cause problems. But they said okay, they focused on what they can do about that. They are a small NGO (non-governmental organisation) which consist of architects and artists. Then they invented the idea of a mobile kitchen that people can cook, meet, talk, in a short word, to be connected each other. They chose to create or build a 'kitchen' because the language is not an obstacle in this context. Even if you don't know the language, you can share your own recipe. Also everyone needs to eat so cooking is just a way to socialise. We asked about if they focused on a specific cuisine.

They explained that cuisines are all mixed; they have like Syrian, Afghan, Iranian , etc. food. When the decision to open a kitchen like that was made, the main objective was just to open it, not a kitchen focused on one cuisine. After the decision, they started to look for a fund raising and a place. Their idea was a mobile kitchen, a food container different than the commercial ones that people sell food. They think that it should be on eye level to make connections, to build boundaries.

The Key Is Working Together

The reaction that received when they first established was a huge empathy but then changed it to some fear. They tried to reduce this fear with working together. During the meeting they underlined 'working together', this is the key. For example, to construct the container some permissions were needed and they were given from the local authorities.

Also we talked about the differentness of the German and Syrian culture. Even though, they try to have these people to have an active role in the society. They want a society which doesn't consider refugees as a problem. As well, they gave us an exemple. For years there was a missing letter on top of a building opposite of the Oberhausen main station. When the text was illuminated in the night, the letter E does not show its light, as if the city had a problem of self-designation or self-assurance. In the night the letter E didn’t illuminate city. To fix this problem, they collaborated with local immigrant youth. As Mr. Stark says “the easiest route does not interest us. For sure it is more difficult to work, be and think together, when there is no common language and when the preconditions are not equal. But in the future society, which we actually already live in, inclusive and empowering structures are central. A walk through had been taken for E and it made think citizens on “self-understanding” as the builders show it around and take the letter E with them to parking lots, viewpoints, reception centers and their first own flats."

Everyone Is Welcome To Join

During the meeting, they underlined many times that everyone is welcomed in their association. Bringing power and energy is the most important thing for the association. Mr. Stark explained this with the difficulties they had experienced. “It is like we have to work eight days a week, not seven” he said and indicated that they are open to people who take care about the ideas and have better expectations for a better society.

They described themselves as a “tool”. For them, it is important to be needed, construct something and being like a “lung”. Then, we discuss about the how the association manage to be reachable for the refugees. They remarked that the association based in the main station of the city and this is an advantageous location for access lots of people. Second, they have a good network under local level and also the official authorities, NGOs and schools. Finally, to be located in a small area helps about knowing quickly who are the actors and what is going on in the city.

On the other hand, even they have access lots of people and the project had a success, the association gets into several difficulties. For exemple, they choose one group (8-9 person) and this group do works for 30 people, even their capacity is limited. Mr. Stark indicated they are not an institution at this point, so it means they have to do this with their volunteers and it needs more time normally what they have. In generally, it can be possible with to be an active with each topic. “Tomorrow, it can be another topic” he said and added, “When you are active in the society, you can try to fill this gap.” Meanwhile, they have to possibly to involve the people to work together and this is also a necessity for them.

Funding, Architecture and Other Projects

Although, the Refugee Kitchen has not a stable funding. So, they gain money from catering and selling foods and also donations. For exemple, they made food for Campfire 2017 which was the Germany’s first festival for journalism and new media. It took place on campus of the university of technology in Dortmund.

Indeed, the architecture of kitchen leads people to communicate. For example, the bar in is open and there are some chairs that you can eat while talking to refugees. In fact, at the roof there is a small area which can allow musicians for giving concert. So the construction itself is open structure and it provides to co-work with refugees.

Mr. Stark said that they couldn't be defined only as an architect. This food container has an interesting engineering because it doesn’t have any connection with water or electricity, so lots of work lie behind of this refugee food container project. Also, the food part of the project is only a bond for communication. He added that the refugee kitchen project became like a social sculpture because they were invited to festivals for representing, not just for making food. Now this project run by their colleague, Ahmad. They specified that they never had any hate mail.

Besides of their works on food, they were in activities with the musicians and participated in journalism festival. Their network grows day by day and therefore they became in a way that they can suggest music groups to activities for example they called a refugee hip hop group. We can say that one of their motto is “repairing oldies and upgrade them”. They repaired a historical truck for using to carry on the container. Of course they had some problems during this project but they took their all permission by governmental state; so now on, no one can hold them!

As much as they wanted to continue this project in winter; because of the weather conditions, it’s more likely a summer activity. On the contrary, their Syrian colleague, Ahmad now started a catering activity.

Moreover, they mentioned about their past and future project with Turkey. First, they have actually a common project with an association from İstanbul that is called “Herkes İçin Mimarlık.” After that, a public speak took place in Salt Galata, İstanbul. Last, inviting the architecture students from İstanbul to Oberhausen can be their future project.

In the end, we were all grateful to meet Mr. Stark and Mrs. Wnuczak. They gave us lots of information and different perspectives about the organisation and the refugee situation. We took our e-mails and social media account to will be able to make a contact in future also make a common project.