Coming soon
A PDF version of the entire project that you can print out. Hopefully a small run of tabloid formats will also be available.
Modeling the School
It’s a pain trying to model an existing building going on photographs, but here’s the model at the moment. Once I have it done, then I can start hacking it up….
The Urban Pantry
So I haven’t blogged in a while, not that anyone reads this anyway, but hey! The last few weeks have been spent trying to juggle project work with management reports, architectural education module write ups and researching my dissertation topic on Open Content Architecture. I am very excited about my dissertation now, it was originally an ‘undergraduate handbook’ but the words ‘undergraduate’ and ‘handbook’ are pretty limiting in how many people actually receive an (unqualified) opinion on how to to get through architecture school. I decided to turn the tables and see how user generated content can help learning – in essence, taking Wikipedia and applying it to everything we know about architecture. The thing about wiki’s are that in theory anyone can contribute, but only if you have a working knowledge of wikisyntax (a modified html coding format) – so it becomes a design exercise in itself to be able to add content easily. Anyway, if anyone is reading, please contribute your thoughts and ideas about what you think would be useful to help students through the system!
I’ve been spending some time in the studio building some study models – it’s not something I usually do but I feel it is a useful way to help communicate ideas. Here’s the latest drawing; it is what happens when my building typology moves into your neighbourhood. The premise is quite simple. The pantry sets up shop and initiates food growing programs with residents within a 10 minute catchment area (sites are identified), who grow food with the help of experienced growers. Once crops are harvested and everyone has their fill, the majority of the food grown is harvested and taken to the pantry for processing, storage and consumption. Initiate a number of catchment areas and the amount of managed land increases exponentially until the entire city is managed through the interdependence of urban pantries.
The drawings are fairly self explanatory:
Download the PDF version: urban pantry_network_saturation_stage
Currently listening to: Motorhead Bomber
Public Eating Typologies
With the UP moving into the realms of actual *spatial* design, this drawing illustrates several public typologies.
Download the PDF version: public_eating_typologies
Currently listening to: Damian Marley Welcome to Jamrock
Food School 3
Following on from placing the Food School in context, this drawing outlines an annual timeline for the Food School. Information on seasonal variation is presented with what foods can be harvested on a monthly basis alongside events calenders and likely use of space on a weekly basis. The information here will be used to inform how the building can be used on a spatial level based on the program of events.
Food School 2
Been a while since the last update – meetings and work have swallowed up vast amounts of time. So! Here is the first in a series of drawings that explore the idea of converting an existing Victorian School going through a transitionary period into a proposed community building focused around the idea of growing food. Unlike dedicated food institute projects and new builds, the aim here is to look at the existing fabric and the organizations that occupy the building currently. The idea of food school is to be integrated into the existing condition by identifying the range of issues that the school must deal with on a systematic level, in addition to placing the program in it’s local context.
Download the PDF here: urban_pantry_in_context
Food School 1
Jay’s Declaration of Interdependence:
i. The provision of a transnational city wide specialized food network.
ii. The city as a sustainable food resource.
iii. Reprogramming leftover space.
iv. Instigating change through the transnational network the city wide food network.
P.S
“Ps I just had a meeting with the head of parks and recreation at the sheffield city council and I am being put on an advisory group for the city’s green spaces strategy which will come out in 9 months or so and will look at the city for the next 25 years..we also have to do a presentation to her senior management team about urban food growing/potential and climate change – maybe you would like to work with me on some visuals on this – it would be great to do some more based on sheffield itself? This is REAL life – a nice real world outcome for your project work maybe?! I think we very much share this interest of researching best practice from across the world.” – Anne-Marie Culhane.
Zing!
The Organoponicos Concept
Question: How can urban agriculture successfully occur in land affected by contamination in our urban areas?
Monty Don in his series ‘Around the World in 80 Gardens’ (Thanks to Yan and Studio 4 for the heads up) looks into the concept of Organoponicos (a type of Urban Agriculture) in the Cuban capital Havana. The concept is quite simple; the political situation in Cuba after the collapse of Communism left the population without food due to trade restrictions. Food production was a necessity that led to government endorsed community allotments that occur on urban sites. The food produced allows entire city communities to thrive economically as well as meet their basic physical requirements. The social impact is massive. Local food feeds local communities and food distribution is measured in ‘metres, not miles’. All the food is required by law to be grown organically and a large proportion of harvesting is done by the young generations.
The situation in Cuba is an example of how urban agriculture can work on a city wide scale successfully, with thousands of plots of different scales being supported through a network of ‘60 horticultural advice centers’ in the form of kiosks around the city. I argue this is what the local food collectives could aspire to as we approach a society in the post oil age within our lifetimes.
More information:
http://academicos.cualtos.udg.mx/Pecuarios/PagWeb%20EP/Lecturas/ORGANOPONICOS.htm http://www.cityfarmer.org/CubaGreen.html
Quote of the Day
“Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.”
- Tip #10 of “40 Tips for an Exceptional, Superb & Powerful Life in 2008″
