A Look at an Attainable Sustainable Future
Urban Design is incredibly vast and multidisciplinary this makes it that we can use it to envision many possible futures. In my personal view of the future all the disciplines within urban design create together under one umbrella, much as they do now (but perhaps more cohesive), to improve quality of life, human experience, and our impact on our earth. I'm going to discuss some sustainability aspects as well as some design movements that are vital to urban designs future development in three different proposed projects. All three projects will be of different scale but will all be dealing with the same genre aspect of sustainability and that is urban farming.
- Starting with an urban farming project proposed at a large scale the Shanghai Urban Farming District. This project designed by Sasaki associates is set to realize a 100-hectare Sunqiao Urban Agricultural District. This concept was originally developed for the growing food demand in the region, but architecturally the concept of vertical urban farming will place nicely into the skyscraper backdrop that is downtown Shanghai. This 100-hectare masterplan is not just meant to be urban farming Sasaki associates sees this urban farming plan to be a great place for future innovation, interaction, and education. This means that the plan includes an interactive greenhouse, science museum, and an aquaponics showcase, this new active environment would be far different from the traditional sprawling rural farmlands. On a level of sustainability just the urban farming alone stands as a current valued sustainable effort but this project goes beyond. The Urban farm plans to be mostly passive as well as mainly make use of the highly efficient hydroponic (the act of growing plants in nutrient rich gravel instead of soil, these plants in turn filter water) and aquaponic (the act of growing water plants that are fed by fish, or other aquatic animal waste) systems. They will also implement algae farms, floating greenhouses, and green walls to additionally add to the food that can be supplied. In terms of urban design this has a lot to do with urban acupuncture. The way the urban farm is being introduced into this high density area is already speculated to be so successful that there is word of more of these interventions. Taking these future interventions and processing them as transforming the whole to better the quality of life and human experience is what urban acupuncture is all about, and working toward the future in large dense cities like Shanghai urban acupuncture might be the only way to intervene onto the large urban format.
- Next is the "Multi-Layered City" by Jacques Ferrier Architecture, Chartier Dalix Architectes, and SLA Architects located at the Boulevard Périphérique in Paris, France. This proposed project has already caught they eye of many as they were the team to have won the Reinventer.paris competition. The multi layered city is obviously at a much smaller scale than the previous project taking up approximately 4.9 acres. The competition name should already give some idea to the baselines idea behind the ideas for this project: to reinvent Paris. The general premise of the competition was that the proposals must have a network of gardens that connect Paris to Neuilly, from Bois de Boulogne to the Porte de Champerret. The proposal by this team was to have a "bridge" cross the Boulevard Périphérique, this bridge would be landscaped and have covered markets, shops, a school of urban horticulture, and a co-working space. The space would also have a public garden which would open up from multiple points to allow access to the public space. The "bridge" would above it have residential units and offices which would allow for expansion if needed in the future. the roofs of the buildings then connect to create an urban farm. This environmental machine is built to create a better quality of life and though it takes in horticulture and urban farms it doesn't do much else for natural or technical sustainability. On the other hand it is very embedded in social sustainability; this project is accessible, local, and powerful all parts that make this proposal socially sustainable. On top of that in the design aspect of the project they have incorporated future growth patterns for the city and accommodated that in the project as necessary. Current day this has an opportunity to be along the lines of a smart growth community but i believe in order to truly take this project to the future in a city such as Paris is to combine that sustainable food culture and integrate it with 'intelligent cities'. These are technologies designed to work with the collective and collaborative knowledge, which ties in perfectly with the community urban farm and horticulture concept that the Multi-Layered City has here.
- Lastly we will discuss Ilimelgo's "Vertical Urban Farm in Romainville". The firm's intention was to reimagine the future of urban agriculture through vertical framing in this Parisian suburb. It means to integrate the production of produce into the city through this 10,000 square feet green house, this again is a much smaller scale than what we were discussing in the last two examples. This greenhouse maximizes sunlight and ventilation, oddly enough vertical agricultural spaces are not rare in Romainville many apartment buildings and houses in the area have been allowed to covert roofs to small agricultural plots. However the firm believes that this compacted greenhouse represents a comprehensive dedication to sustainability, education, and local economic participation. Split into two wings the greenhouse captures as much sunlight as possible and limits share, the use of of straw and wood fiber insulation make this project even more sustainable. Again here we see a great push toward natural and technical sustainability but this project also pushes social sustainability as its form has taken on something reminiscent of the style of Romainville, it handles the vernacular well without sacrificing its ecological sustainability. This project concept wise is the future; future vertical urban farming is the future. But as it was done in so many spots around them i will clarify that this one in particular is the future as it isn't just functional but aesthetically holding to vernacular which is also incredibly important to improving the overall human experience of space. This currently again could fit in greatly with the smart growth urban movement however i think in the future small scale urban farms like this could really come in well in public interest urban design. These spaces could be placed in dense underserved communities as an effort for food relief, education, and creating community.
Overall these examples are both a great example of how scale effects future possibilities and how sustainability and all disciplines under urban design can form better ecological and better qualities of life for any kind of urban scale.
~ Hanna
References:
"Sasaki Unveils
Design for Sunqiao, a 100-Hectare Urban Farming District in Shanghai."
ArchDaily. April 02, 2017. Accessed November 30, 2017.
https://www.archdaily.com/868129/sasaki-unveils-design-for-sunqiao-a-100-hectare-urban-farming-district-in-shanghai.
"Jacques Ferrier
Architecture, Chartier Dalix and SLA Architects Unveil Their Multi-Layered City
Design for Reinventer.Paris." ArchDaily. February 18, 2016. Accessed
November 30, 2017. https://www.archdaily.com/781871/the-multi-layered-city-plus-chartier-dalix-architectes-plus-jacques-ferrier-architecture-plus-sla-landskab.
"Ilimelgo
Reimagines Future of Urban Agriculture in Romainville." ArchDaily. July
04, 2017. Accessed November 30, 2017.
https://www.archdaily.com/874922/ilimelgo-reimagines-future-of-urban-agriculture-in-romainville.
Something that caught my attention right away is your images, not only are they visually attractive but they also seem to have something in common. That is that they all seem to deal with density issues. The urban farm is to support the population and the vertical towers are a result of space constraints and population. My question is, if we keep finding ways of solving issues with our growing population are we not adding to the problem by allowing there to be more people in a set area (increasing density)?
ReplyDeleteFirst of thank you, i sequence all the images together in a specific manner to convey specific points. Second i thought a lot about your question when writing this initial blog post. Currently i think urban farming is meant to just aid the current populations but when we increase population densities to the point that urban farming becomes insignificant it'll have gone so far that we will not have enough food to feed the entire population in general.
DeleteUrban farming is a very popular topic and there are many people who are currently focusing on it.The graphics you have shown are amazing and I know from personal experience how difficult it is to represent crops in graphics. I designed a small urban farm for some fairgrounds and I found it extremely difficult to show all of the elements needed for a strong design. I really liked the project that you discussed and it definitely is a good example that people should look up to when designing an urban farm.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you took on the task of designing an urban farm is incredibly impressive to me since after doing the research for this project i have realized how much goes into this. There is urban designing, architecture, biology, chemistry, environmental design, and eventually graphic design. i feel especially in urban farms the imaging is so important because imagining a vertical farm or forest for many of us is hard to simply imagine.
DeleteAs cities grow and farmland disappears, urban farms are a way to continue one of the most vital occupations in even the most urban environments. Urban farms, in many cities are key contributors to the sustainability of cities. Not only does it provide a local food source for its residence, the selling of this local food keeps local dollars local and fuels the local economy.
ReplyDeletei completely agree though i always wonder how well farmers and traditional agricultural workers would adapt to vertical and urban farming.
DeleteI can see the Multi-Layered City has a lot of green roofs. It is a really good concept for urban sustainability. The green roofs help a city in many different aspects, such as to reduce the heat island effect, reduce the temperature of the building, reduce the energy consumption of air conditioning, beautify the environment, improve the air quality, provide urban wildlife habitat, and provide the park for resting, etc. The green roof plays an important role in the sustainable development of the city. And in the current and future urban development, sustainability and ecological protection have gradually become top priorities.
ReplyDeletei too feel that green roofs have a very broad future in architecture and urban design both in the heat reduction (and other sustainable aspects), as well habitat reclamation, and hopefully urban farming.
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