I am always eating on the go and often I don’t really feel like searching for that spot to actually eat my food. In fact, I will never forget a particular time in a big city where I grabbed lunch at the best take out joint only to find nowhere…for many, many blocks…where I could literally just set my carton on something long enough to scoop out the contents. I think I ended up settling for a chest height window sill in some slightly inhabited alley. I wondered then how much of the working population just ate at their desks, not because they wanted to but because they had little choice. Sure, a nice little pocket park filled with tables would be sweet but not every area has that opportunity and it’s most likely packed at lunchtime and chances are you would rather eat on the window sill of an alley just to get some air and pull your eyes away from the computer screen even for a few minutes, rather than eat at your desk.

I continued wondering about what could be done to bring some easy changes to the urban streetscape to offer people with take out a simple way to set their small meal on something long enough to grab a bite on the fly and maybe even a conversation. Not cafe tables and chairs but just something…something easy and small. Or perhaps it’s not a part of streetscape at all but takes the form of product development, portable items designed for easy transport and conversion of everyday streetscape objects into useful lunchtime items like a tabletop or glass holder. But seeing as how I was moving too fast at that time and didn’t have the time to expand upon these thoughts, it didn’t go anywhere. These thoughts came pouring back when I came across a super cool new site.

I’m very excited that someone is exploring these ideas and even has a blog dedicated to their research and development. This site is called Popup Lunch by Alexandra Pulver in New York City. She says, “I am exploring how nontraditional public spaces – like sidewalks – might be easily transformed into lively places to lunch. This blog follows a series of Pop Up Lunches I have staged (some big, some small) and my development of mobile eating tools designed for the sidewalks of NYC. Ultimately, I hope that my efforts might inspire even a handful of my fellow urbanites to reconsider the potential for lunch – to be a joyful daily event – and for the sidewalks of NYC to serve as more than just pathways.”

She comes up with some simple and creative ideas to make the urban streetscape more useful to those grabbing lunch on the fly and in need of a simple yet temporary solution to their lunchtime needs, like the fire hydrant table top…

With food carts in some cities becoming the way of life for many urban office dwellers, it can be difficult to find a simple place to prop up your lunch just for a few minutes when there is a whole line of food stands, loads of people and serious lack of actual eating space. But eating doesn’t have to mean that you need a lot of space. Really all you need is the amount of space you already stand in. So what about when you order a street dog, you could hear….”would you like a table with that?”

And I absolutely loved (and seriously could’ve used) this highly creative solution to turning your ordinary, average chainlink fence into a lovely seating opportunity. This could make for some great people watching and make chain link fences really useful. This also reminded me of when someone told me about how some hostels in South America were merely made up of hooks and you brought your own bed by way of a hammock.

images via popup lunch