At the Table
Building community through intentional conversations at the dinner table
At the Table is a participatory design project that reimagines the dinner table as a powerful space for building connection in response to the loneliness and disconnection many people experience today. It challenges us to rethink how we gather, eat, and converse.
By embracing meaningful connection around the table, we can cultivate a greater sense of community and shared humanity. Through this project, we invite you to explore the transformative power of conversation and the deep sense of belonging that can emerge from the simple act of sharing a meal.
Project Brief
The Senior Capstone challenged me to conceptualize and execute a self-directed, research-driven project that embodied my values, interests, and evolution as a designer. The goal was to investigate a topic of personal significance through a rigorous design process—rooted in research, prototyping, and iteration—and bring it to present it publicly at the Senior Grad Show exhibition.
My Role
Length
Design Research
UX Design
Product Design
Exhibition Design
Project & Product Manager
16 weeks
Year
Spring 2025
Problem
Loneliness is increasingly recognized as a public health crisis, with many people lacking spaces for authentic social connection. While dining tables have long been sites of intimacy and cultural exchange, modern life has eroded many of these rituals, leading to more isolated and transactional relationships with food and with others. The problem this project addresses is not just disconnection, but the absence of intentional spaces that nurture meaningful conversation—especially across differences. In design contexts, experiences are often created around spectacle, consumption, or function, but rarely around vulnerability or emotional intimacy. At The Table sought to counter this by creating a space where gathering becomes a practice of empathy. A key challenge was ensuring that the design would feel inclusive and emotionally safe for a diverse range of participants. The work needed to balance aesthetic beauty, usability, and emotional invitation while navigating logistical constraints, public participation, and complex interpersonal dynamics.
The final installation of At The Table brought together handcrafted ceramics, interactive media, and spatial storytelling to create a powerful invitation for connection. The ceramic tableware was the heart of the project—each piece embedded with a unique question that encouraged deeper conversation and reflection. The immersive tablescape featured thoughtful composition to create an atmosphere of warmth and intentionality. The installation was not only visually striking but emotionally resonant—visitors were drawn in by the beauty, and stayed for the meaning. The "Ask a Stranger" wall became a dynamic extension of the dinner table. Using an interactive interface, participants typed their answers to a curated question, which were then projected live onto a nearby screen, where they could view responses that had been collected throughout the night. Visitors lingered, talked, took photos, and—most importantly—engaged with strangers and loved ones in deeper ways. The project succeeded in transforming a physical space into a participatory, emotional experience that modeled how design can foster community through care and conversation.
Solution
Insights
The process behind At The Table began with an exploration of how people gather and why it matters. Here are five key parts of the process:
1) Secondary Research:
Drawing from psychology, sociology, and cultural studies, I investigated the role of rituals, communal eating, and conversation in fostering belonging. This research helped shape the project’s focus on intentional prompts and sensory experience.
3) Ceramic Prototyping:
In the studio, I hand-built ceramic plates, bowls, and cups, integrating the chosen questions directly into the physical design.
This slow, tactile process reinforced the project’s emphasis on presence and care.
4) Interactive Tech Integration:
For the "Ask a Stranger" wall, I created a digital interface, allowing visitors to anonymously input answers to a singular prompt. These responses were projected in real time, creating a living collage of perspectives that echoed the project’s themes of openness and reciprocity.
2) Community Input:
I created an open call for people to submit their favorite dinner table questions. This not only helped generate content but revealed patterns—questions around memory, vulnerability, and imagination often sparked the most engagement.
4) Storyboarding the Experience:
I sketched multiple iterations of how the installation would feel—from place settings to the flow of participants around the table and walls. This allowed me to choreograph the emotional rhythm of the experience.
Research & Observations
Secondary Research
I looked at a variety of media from books, to articles, and social projects all centered around community building.
We’re Not Really Strangers - Card game
Oxford Muse – Conversation Dinners
Key takeaways:
1) Humans are wired for relationship. Strangers become less intimidating and more human once a connection is made.
500 Plates : Hunter Franks – Community Meals
2) Other projects framed the table as a platform for equity and presence, where everyone’s story matters and every voice is heard.
The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting In a Suspicious World
by Joe Keohane
3) Receiving a “menu of conversation,” with questions instead of food, encourages dialogue between strangers, bypassing small talk and diving into meaningful topics.
Final Proposal
At the Table is a participatory design project that reimagines the dinner table as a powerful space for building connection in response to the loneliness and detachment many people experience today. Inspired by her Colombian upbringing, where family meals were vibrant with discussions about politics, community, and life, Torgusen emphasizes the importance of gathering. Recognizing that not everyone has had such experiences, At the Table creates a welcoming space for all perspectives, focusing on new and intentional ways to come together.
Central to the project is a series of handcrafted ceramic tableware, each piece featuring thoughtfully chosen conversation prompts. These prompts, developed through a combination of psychological research and public input, aim to move beyond superficial small talk and encourage deeper dialogue, promoting vulnerability, empathy, and genuine engagement. The choice of ceramics is purposeful: as essential items for any shared meal, these pieces transform everyday objects into tools for connection by incorporating questions directly into their design. The installation includes a carefully curated tablescape that immerses visitors in a dining atmosphere, along with an interactive "Ask a Stranger" wall that invites guests to actively engage with the themes of the project.
At the Table prompts us to reconsider how we gather, share meals, and converse. By embracing meaningful connections around the dinner table, we can nurture a deeper sense of community and shared humanity. Through this project, we invite you to discover the transformative power of conversation and the profound sense of belonging that can arise from the simple act of sharing a meal.
Exhibition
I curated a gallery stile exhibition to showcase the finished conversation ceramic pieces to invite guests into the experience.
REFLECTION
This project pushed me to move beyond designing for aesthetics or usability alone, and instead create something deeply personal, intentional, and emotionally resonant. At The Table was not just about crafting objects, it was about designing an experience that could invite vulnerability, stir memory, and prompt real human connection.
Throughout the process, I found myself returning to questions of why we gather and what it means to be present with one another. Designing the physical pieces was a tactile, grounding experience, while developing the installation forced me to think spatially and emotionally - how to guide people through an experience, how to make them feel welcome, how to honor both their silence and their stories.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to continue evolving At The Table beyond the exhibition. My next steps include hosting community dinners to test the concept with a broader audience and explore how people engage with the prompts in more intimate, real-world settings. I also plan to build a website that will serve both as a ceramic shop and a resource hub for others who want to host intentional dinner gatherings of their own. Finally, I’m beginning to explore larger-scale manufacturing possibilities to bring the tableware to more people while maintaining the soul of the original designs. This project is just the beginning of what I hope will become an ongoing, evolving effort to nurture meaningful connection through design.