AGRITECTURAL URBANISM:

FOODSCRAPER

CAITLIN M. PONTRELLA ADVISOR: MICHAEL PELKIN

CONTENTION
AGRITECTURAL URBANISM
Just as the newborn baby cannot be nourished and grow without its nursemaids milk, so neither can a city grow without farmlands and the flow of their produce within its walls. without abundant food, no city can maintain a large population nor, without resources, safeguard its people. - Alexander the Great, Vitruvius
chemicals, depleting the very ecosystem we are reliant on for life (Owen).

Setting the Stage

Cities are the foundation of modern human society and the engines of intellectual evolution. They are well oiled machines composed of complex systems handling everything from water to waste. Not all is created equal however. Of all these systems, the most critical is the food system. Where sewage piping and power grids were the product of the city, the city was the product of agriculture. Agriculture enabled urban life. Yet continued urbanization has disconnected the city and its inhabitants from the very food system that supports it. Thus, both agriculture and the city have developed into separate, unsustainable ecologies. Their individual relationships with the natural environment have become highly demanding and destructive. Cities, which take up less than 3% of the worlds land, require most of the energy and non-renewable resources available and produce the majority of pollution and solid waste. Agriculture also uses a huge amount of energy and in turn pollutes the land and sea with

Today, modern cities almost exclusively rely on the import of resources to meet their daily basic needs. By 2050, it is predicted that over 80% of the worlds population will live within one of these agglomerations (Steel). Though the globalization of the food system has allowed for continued growth, the international web of production, distribution, and consumption is becoming increasingly uneconomical (Hesterman). Additionally, failing food crops, population increases, fuel prices, the changing environment and disease only add to this strain. It is time we begin looking for methods of securing long term, local and reliable food within city limits, rather than leaving the city vulnerable to these shifting global conditions.

the beginning to farmers markets, b are

A New Urban Food Infrastructure

Agriculture has remained the same since it emerged, but we certainly havent. Large scale horizontal farming methods are out of date, presenting more danger than good to society. It is time to begin seeking out new models for sustainable food production. Lack of urgency has slowed the exploration of larger, urban models but the time for complacency is over. This call for new urban food infrastructure is a provocation that demands an architectural response--A response that deals the various scales and shapes of food issues in the city. This infrastructure would adopt the identity of a central food hub from where the city food system can unhinge. At the heart of this hub would be a Vertical Farm. By utilizing a blend of soilless technologies such as hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics, it would reduce water use and waste as well as increase food output. The research and integration of efficient technologies, such as Lumigrow LED lighting and high-yeild grow systems by PlantLAB is integral to building up the viablility of this project. This food infrastructure should also interweave spaces for education, policy

making, and local food exchange with these food technologies in order to create productive interactive relationships. It should provide a platform upon which environmental, economical, and societal issues exist in dialogue.

Research+Precedence

Urban farms already in existance. From the commerical scale of Gotham Greens to the private rooftops of Brooklyn Grange. Past Vertical Farm designs, mostly conceptual if not entirely. These not only confront similar issues but have criticism and critique available for consumption. Grow technologies. How to design custom hydro-, aero-, and aquaponic systems.

NYC; Global City

Global Cities are looked at for precedence. NYC is easily accessi ble and I am familiar with the context. Potentailly examine Central Park in Manhattan as well as Prospect Park in Brooklyn as two potential sites.

backyard gardens, rooftop farms--they o a shift--but the challenge lies in how to

urban greens sustainble means

Sky Foods
SKYFOODS CORPORATION CPONTRELLA 2011

ANNOTATED.BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bernstein, Synthia. Aquaponic Gardening: A StepBy-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together. 1. New Society Publishers , 2011. Print. A technical review of how aquaponic systems are constructed and function. Vital to understanding the potential food production systems for vertical farming. Despommier, Dickson. The Vertical Farm. 1. New York: St. Martins Press, 2010. Print. Dickenson Despommier, a professor at Columbia University, paints a picture of what a large scale urban food system might look like. Though vague in regards to the technical needs of vertical farming, it lays out its potential. It holds a record of precedence and imagery as well as makes suggestsions of programming and organization. Really sets the stage and makes a compelling argument for the importance of trying to develop new/alternative/ urban forms of farming. Fraser, Evan, and Andrew Rimas. Empires of Food. 1. New York: Free Press, 2010. Print. Fraser, researcher at Leeds University, and journalist Rimas explore the how premodern civilizations dealt with feeding large scale urban populations and how food has played a role in their collapse. It then examines todays approach to feeding our growing population--and how we are on the track to repeating the mistakes of our ancestors. A source of broad history as well as a record of the present day crisis. It brings weights to the need for alterna-

tive solutions for food production. Grimes, William. Appetite city : a culinary history of New York. 1st ed. New York: North Point Press, 2009. Print The first of two critical texts that delve in to the history of food in NYC and the relationship it shares with its consumers. Hauck-Lawson, Annie, and Jonathan Deutsch. Gastropolis : Food and New York City. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. Print. The first of two critical texts that delve in to the history of food in NYC and the relationship it shares with its consumers. Hesterman, Oran. Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All. PublicAffairs, 2011. Print. Hesterman, inaugural president of Fair Food Network and past program director at the WK Kellog Foundation, highlights hte importance of fair food. He tries to map out the existing food system, where it is balanced and where it is in severe need of redesign. He also buildings a connection between how we eat individually and how we need to make better, local choices. Again, this is another book that serves as a defense for Vertical Farming. Jacobs, Karrie. Back to the Land: The hottest 21stcentury urban amenity might be a arm. Metropolis Oct 15, 2008: n. pag. Web. 2 Oct 2010. <http://

www.metropolismag.com/story/20081015/ back-to-the-land>. Koc, Mustafa. For hunger-proof cities: sustainable urban food systems. IDRC, 1999. Print. A collection of essays written by farmers, professors, activists, and policy makers examining food issues from an urban perspective--as well as presenting solutions to the crisis we face in the future. Essays of particular interest explore local food systems, urban agriculture, issues of accessibility, health concerns, and food policy. Miller, G. Tyler. Replenish the Earth. Belmont: Wadswoth Publishing Co, 1972. Print. Owen, David. Green Metropolis. 1. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009. Print. Owen, writer at the New Yorker, argues that NYC is a model of sustainability through a series of intelligent anecdotes of sprawl and its limitations. It is more a book about urban planning, unveiling why NYC functions as well as it does--and why other cities do not. This book assists in the understanding of what presently exists so that my project can better address the context. Raviv, Michael. Soilless Culture: Theory and Practice. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 2007. Print. A comprehensive overview of soilless cultivation techniques, including hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics. Explores functions and limitations as well as analysies use. It is a good source of general and technical knowledge. Steel, Carolyn. Hungry City. United Kingdom: Random Hous, 2008. Print. Essentially sets the stage for this thesis. Written by architect Carolyn Steel, Hungry City explores the process of feeding a city on a daily basis and what is required to continue to do so. It not only is a detailed account of the errors in our system but provides ways in which we can begin correcting the problems we have allowed to perpetuate.

Tracey, David. Urban Agriculture. Canada: New Society Publishers, 2011. Print. Provides a variety of solutions to the problem of urban agriculture. A great resource in terms of precedence.

Sustainable Means!

Sky Foods
CPONTRELLA 2011

HYDROPONIC FOODS

ShareintheHarvest

VOLUNTEERTODAY

WATCH THEM GROW RIGHT NEXT DOOR!

Sky Foods
CPONTRELLA 2011