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Farmscape woven into the Urban Fabric
By Trevor Boyle and Justin Fong
Email: boyletrevor@yahoo.com
"The site was directly across from a park that during WWII was used for victory gardens, and so that idea was brought into it as well. The elevated 'walkway' is used as a growing surface, translating the urban stacked density into a farming notion, instead of the sprawling countryside that's usually seen.
"Southern facing walls on the buildings are also plant walls on the exterior, with a modular steel frame. The actual fruit/vegetable growing floor space is only around 30% of the total for the building; it's more about introducing the idea back into mainstream daily life. The square footage is enough to be able to feed 200 people throughout a year, so it's more about growing for the community around the site than being able to mass produce and feed the whole city, though that would be possible with another iteration.
"The Urban Farm project was designed after a trip to Manhattan, where the urban condition has basically taken completely over the entire island, with only a couple parks existing as protected areas. As the human population expands and urban density steadily increases, the natural environment becomes further and further detached from daily life. Nature becomes a contained condition, with small pockets of protected plant life that form within the overbearing mass of the city.
"Instead of fighting back the continuous creep of the city edge, the Urban Farm project suggests a co-habitive measure, where commerce and nature can exist within the same space. Instead of the complete domination of the built environment over the natural landscape, the two can weave together. This creates a more harmonious space, one that provides for the needs of people without sacrificing the benefits of plant life. It is a space which is commercial and garden all at once.
"There's an elevated walkway that's made for 10′x10′ planting plots, and vertical plant walls that weave throughout a commercial office space site. These also meet the needs of the community, since the site is surrounded by residential zones. It's an area for people to embrace nature while being able to get done what they need to."
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