Project Video - the concept behind The Table of Origins
Treo House briefing and problem mapping
2026
The Table Of Origins
For centuries, people have
gathered around a table to share more than just food.
They gather
to pause, to build community,
and to reconnect.
Project Partners:
Project Details:
Duration: 10 weeks
Team: Maitreyi Mandrekar, Haerin Lee, Odelia Vaz and Pei-Tsen Lai
Methods: Experience prototyping, Co-design workshops, Reflective practice, Participatory design methods, Service blueprinting and mapping.
The Table of Origins is a service intervention that facilitates meaningful conversations and behavioural reflection around sustainability through guided, multi-sensory interactions.
Delivered as a performative dining experience, it uses elemental courses: soil, water, air, and fire, as structured touchpoints to help participants pause, engage their senses, and reflect on the systems that sustain life.
Through storytelling, audio-visual cues, and prompts, the service acts as a conversation infrastructure, enabling shared reflection
on care, responsibility, and interdependence across both ecological and human systems.
Outcome: Enable participants to move from passive awareness to active, shared reflection on sustainability through structured, sensory-driven conversations.
Project Video - the concept behind The Table of Origins
An unconventional brief
Treo House, a sustainability collective in London, approached us to address a growing sense of disconnection within their community, from self, others, and nature.
Members felt overwhelmed by the complexity of sustainability, frustrated by the lack of progress, and isolated in their urgency, often operating from stress rather than resilience and creativity.
The challenge was to design a service intervention that could reconnect people to themselves, each other, and the systems they care about, while enabling more meaningful, reflective engagement.
Key Insights
How might we create a member-led, tangible experience that rekindles connection to self, others, and the natural world through playful
co-exploration and storytelling?
Treo House member empathy mapping
Brainstorming the ideas for the experience - image taken during the Crit presentations with the stakeholders.
What we designed and why?
After conducting an evidence mapping and horizon scan across meditation practices, immersive art installations, and services designed to foster community dialogue, we identified the need for structured yet experiential third spaces that enable reflection and connection.
In response, we designed The Table of Origins: a facilitated gathering that uses the familiar format of fine dining, combined with storytelling and sensory cues, to create moments of pause. The service fosters a shared environment where participants can engage more deeply with sustainability, themselves, and each other.
Prototyping the touchpoints for the event.
Service Blueprint
The Final event (a pilot run for the service)
The outcome was shaped through iterative prototyping and pilot runs, where we tested key touchpoints, facilitation styles, and narrative tone. Early iterations revealed gaps, particularly in how certain elements failed to embody care and reflection, which led us to refine the language, pacing, and emotional framing of the experience.
These iterations ensured that the final service moved beyond a curated experience to a meaningful, cohesive intervention rooted in intention and connection.
Event iterations.
Images captured during the final event.
Way Forward
To extend the impact beyond a single event, we developed a communication package that enables others to facilitate their own version of the Table of Origins - adaptable to different contexts, communities, and topics.
The Table of Origins is not a one-off experience, but a collective storytelling and conversation tool designed to foster deeper connections and more mindful engagement. It encourages people to notice what often goes unseen in fast-paced lives, offering a pathway toward slower, more intentional ways of relating, reflecting, and designing services.