Integrated Design Report A Recipe For Food Security Berlin Ministry of Food
Leeds Metropolitan University MARCH 2
DSIT A Jack R Davey 33217145
ONE
Design And Technology 1. A personal position
2. The design studio context 3. The design thesis 4. Technical and techological questions 5. Further development
TWO
Management And Law 1. Planning issues
2. Development appraisal scenario 3. Procurement and risk 4. Architectural practice 5. Profesisonal reflection
Design And Technology
ONE.1
A personal position
I see architecture as a way of solving problems through design, to respond to necessary issues on independent, local, national or global scales. This particularly relates to communities and how I can respond to their local social and or political problems whilst providing involvement, integration and inclusion of that community within the strategy, scheme or final outcome. The response becomes away of providing a necessary service that aims to resurrect a community or area of a city they may otherwise become excluded or redundant. Within the architecture itself I am influenced by the idea of reusing or regenerating the abandoned and disused, materialistically and contextually. A personal interest at present involves lifestyle, healthy living and fitness and nutrition, necessary food resources and food security. These topics are a reflection of my own passions outside of architecture, and ones that I wish and aim to pursue and apply within my professional career.
ONE.2
The design studio context
Crash Test
CitizenAgents:
The studio focuses upon the synthesis of biology and future technologies to test and develop the potential Utopia’s of tomorrow, born from the Post-Industrial wastelands of today.
By thinking about the strategic urban design of the city and understanding the resources within communities the city can become more adaptive, resilient, egalitarian and coherent. The studio situates its explorations in post-industrial cities. It considers global imperatives and local issues together.
These theories helped me develop a way of exploring my thesis by testing and or comparing existing strategies and researching current solutions to similar problems. One principal was understanding and experimenting how buildings responded to climatic, social and political requirements and are developed to cope with change. Emphasis was put on research into our global footprint, as individuals at local, national and global levels. This provoked a particular interest towards post capitalist cities and how we as designers could produce alternative solutions to reduce or remove the effects of capitalism and industrialization.
Focusing on urban strategies and community engagement CitizenAgents runs parallel with my personal position in architecture emphasizing solving problems within the community and encouraging involvement of its inhabitants. This informed me to pursue the idea of responding to unemployment, malnourishment and homelessness within Berlin, as it was of importance to myself and the studio to re-energize neglected areas of post-industrial cities.
ONE.3
The design thesis
With the ever increasing Global population, the increase in want and need for food consumption alongside the diminishing amount of food resources and the inability to keep up with the market demands a different perspective of food production and means of being food resilient need to be pursued. According to Prince Charles our present approach is rapidly mining resilience out of our food system and threatening to leave it ever more vulnerable to the various external shocks that are becoming more varied, extreme and frequent. (The Guardian 2013) Problems occurring as a result of this production method included the vitality of the soil and local ecosystems, the quality and availability of fresh water local employment and people’s health. Germany has a rich heritage in food production and distribution and as a result now has a food crisis of its own. Berlin faces a challenge feeding its many inhabitants, which brings numerous questions and concerns as how to meet the food needs of the poor, how to ensure that people who cannot afford to spend much on food eat healthy and how to secure a sustainable food supply for a population of over 3.3 million. Current schemes are still not affordable for many families and not aimed at the poor. (Vero 2010) Approximately 600,000 people in Berlin are dependent on Hartz IV welfare relief. Despite working, people are unable to earn enough to ensure correct nutrition reaches the table. More than 100,000 Berlin citizens receive welfare
assistance and are considered to be part of the “working poor”. http://www. expatica.com/de/essentials_moving_to/ country_facts/going-without-in-wealthygermany-23310.html Food resources and production in Germany, particularly in Berlin were largely influenced by the Soviet Union during and after WWI and WWII. This impacted the future of food in Germany and its present situation and affected other places around the world, for example the Cuban food revolution. The development of both these countries was informed by localised and organic food production for personal consumption to provide food security. http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Germany In the past food has physically carved its way into ancient cities, where this food was bought and sold, the cities were built around facilitating this food flow. Industrialization changed all that. Using railroads to import slaughtered meat and vegetables into our cities, we “effectively emancipated [our cities] from geography.” (Steel 2009) The typical Urban Dweller today has no understanding of where or how food is produced/distributed. We have become dependent on huge, powerful, profitminded corporations to bring huge quantities of food from industrial farms into our supermarkets – but the entire process is hidden, massively complex, and, ultimately, unsustainable. (Steel 2009) With the increasing population of under nourished, homeless and unemployed in
Berlin, created by the separation of classes, lack of food knowledge, and high numbers of unskilled immigrants set to increase I aim to regenerate diminishing areas of Berlin to increase food security within the city by introducing ‘Food Ministries into chosen communities requiring necessary jobs, food and shelter. The Ministry will show what truly sustainable food production and economic development looks and provide a series of amenities including for the community. It will run off a renewable energy system created by the building and provide employment for 750 locals as well as an abundance of food crop.
ONE.4
Technical and technoligical questions
Imbedded into design process The ‘Ministry of Aquaponics’ is the schemes food production facility. I gained a detailed knowledge and understanding of how an aquaponics systems works enabling integration into the overall design. The design of the aquaponics facility was integrated into my Design studio integrated technology part C, specialist study, therefore an in depth study and analysis of the system, of how it worked, the production ratios and what mechanical elements make up a system and what will be produced were investigated and informed the design. Aquaponics is a food production system that combines conventional aquaculture and hydroponics within a symbiotic environment. Aquaculture consists of raising aquatic animals like fish in tanks whilst Hydroponics consists of cultivating plants in water. In an aquaponic system, water from an aquaculture system is fed to a hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down by nitrogen-fixing bacteria into nitrates and nitrites, which are utilized by the plants as nutrients. The water is then recirculated back to the aquaculture system. Aquaponics systems are usually grouped into several components or subsystems responsible for the effective removal of solid wastes, for adding bases to neutralize acids, or for maintaining water oxygenation.
3
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Primary internal steel frame structure for supporting hydroponic system: 1. 152x152x37mm wide flange universal beam supported by 152x152x37mm wide flange universal column. Attached via m12 Stainless nut and bolt through attachment plate welded to column. 2. Steel grate walkway sections supported by secondary, 51x51x3.2mm steel box section, attached to universal beam with m8 stainless nut and bolt through steel angle. Hydroponic grow tray structure: 3. 51x51x3.2mm steel box section verticals attatched to horizontal steel box section 51x51x3.2 via m8 stainless steel nut and bolt through steel angle piece. Horizontals are attached to primary steel structure in the same fashion. 4. 32.4x1.4x0.3meter growing trays filled with hydronic growing stone medium (8-12cm dia) intermittently flooded and drained with system water from subsystem, supported by 51x51x3.2mm steel box section frame. Water supplied to grow trays from subsystem via 150mm pvc mechanically pumped and gravity fed pipe network.
5
4
ONE.4
Technical and technological issues
Associated with design implementation Re-instating the allotments over the top building is achieved by creating a roof landscape for growing on. This roof has to be supported to create the void beneath to which my buildings will be contained in, in various locations across the site. Diagrid and geodesic structures provide high strength to span ratio allowing me to create large canopies forming the new roof scape and accommodation spaces below. Public and private, climate controlled and un heated spaces within the building are distinguished by the structural form. Rammed earth structural walls will be used to create accommodations spaces such as lecture theatres, culture kitchens, dining and social pods, circulation cores and sanitary facilities and space around them beneath the landscape will be back filled with soil to re-instate the landscape above them. And a large void space for live events, markets, trading and community gatherings will be spanned by a diagrid structure to create a full height contrasting public arena.
ONE.5
Further development
My research suggests that malnutrition, unemployment and homelessness are all connected and exist coherently, each one affecting the other. The proposed scheme is one of a collective within Berlin. These schemes are located in areas defined by the demographic and are situated in areas of high unemployment, malnourishment and migrants. These tend to be areas specifically designed for this populous in the form of social housing schemes. The masterplan aims to create a number of these local, community, food security schemes and therefore future models of the proposed scheme will be located around Berlin corresponding to areas of social housing and deprivation. Berlin boasts 6 UNESCO world heritage social housing schemes that are renowned examples of architecture and design for social housing, conceived by recognized Architects. Schemes within the master plan will be developed in these areas, and as a future legacy to respond to the effectiveness of these, developed in other social housing and deprived areas across Berlin to create city wide food security and resolve the issues of malnutrition, homelessness and unemployment. This idea could also be implemented in other German cities in similar crisis for example Munich.
Management And Law
TWO.1 Planning issues Berlin has a deep history in its development of allotments that formed as a result of WWI and WWII and rise and fall of the Soviet Union. My site is located within an allotment community therefore I have to take notice of laws that may apply. The main rule to be adhered to by allotment owners in Berlin is the 30/30/30 law. This means that anyone who owns an allotment garden has to use their space for certain purposes. 30% of the land for crop production, 30% for recreation and 30% can be built on and the further 10% is flexible. Therefore by applying this to my building/s the roof scape becomes land for allotments or growth, beneath the build roof canopy is recreation space, and within that is, built, accommodation. The Neukolln allotment gardens chosen is owned by the government, however due to debt is being sold off, along with other allotment sites in Berlin, and bought by private investors and developers aiming to generate large profits from it. This poses a threat to the choice of my site as to whether it should be kept as public or privately owned. German planning laws will differ from those in the UK and may inform some decisions in the design process, particular attention will be paid to the ‘Berlin Block’ typology where by accommodation surrounds and is complimented by community space in the form of gardens and courtyards. Planning laws also suggest responding to surrounding context, social housing scheme, in terms of size and scale and response to materials and local environmental conditions. Due to the nature of the building envelope creating an unheated internal space beneath a roof canopy as well as internal accommodation spaces there
are specific fire safety strategies to adhere to. The building(s) are classed as assembly and recreation and therefore at ground level escape routes can be of 19m single directions, 45m dual directions contributing to this is due to the spaces being open to the elements through roof voids they are better ventilated for smoke exhaustion. The planning of internal accommodation will be kept minimal in plan to allow easy and practical access across a large area. In more intense areas of accommodation Part B will be met to maintain high safety standards.
TWO.2 Development appraisal scenario The land I propose to use for my site was once a series of allotments that were demolished for a motorway extension, which was never developed. Therefore the government, specifically for Berlin the Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment, owned plots are abandoned and in need of regeneration to make use of valuable space. It would be beneficial for the proposal to be developed by the government as the issues discovered in the thesis that drive the scheme are those that occur throughout Berlin and need to be solved by the government to create a better city. A private investor or cooperation could potentially see this as an opportunity to turn over big profits, where as the emphasis should be on improving Berlin’s current issues with malnutrition, homelessness and unemployment through an urban strategy designed to create food security in the city. This would then also become a model for future food issues and set a precedent for other governments. Therefore this is also the reason as to why it should be government funded.
It would be beneficial if the development and proposal of the scheme(s) was lead by an institute with the required detailed knowledge into hydroponics, aquaculture and aquaponics as this is a large element within the scheme. An organisation such as The Biospheric Foundation, who research particularly into such systems and employ people with the relevant skills to apply the specific knowledge required for such a specific field of science could over see such a proposal and share their wealth of knowledge and understanding to the community allowing them to learn and develop their skills and spread them further.
TWO.3 Procurement and risk As suggested the proposal should be funded by the Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment. An associated contractor should be chosen to construct the scheme. This will provide the best communication and coherence between the two parties. Although a main contractor will be employed one of the principals of the scheme is to provide employment for the population of the surrounding area, and therefore residents will be used as labor within the construction phase of the project. These people will either utilize these skills in industry across Berlin and therefore further their career, or they will then be employed to work within the scheme, for instance in the aquaponics facility, kitchens, research labs and admin. The role of the residents as employees in the construction phase of the proposal becomes particularly relevant when erecting the rammed earth internal walls. Rammed earth was chosen as a structure to create the internal spaces is as unskilled laborers, the local community population, can construct them and therefore this provides necessary employment and in turn money to afford accommodation and food. Berlin is built on marshland and therefore has a very high water table. This can create issues when constructing buildings with basements, and has been a consideration when building in Berlin for some time. To resolve this Berlin came up with a network of pipes that run around the city above ground and pump water away from sites and back into the watercourses. This system can be linked to my site to remove excess water when digging out for basement construction and foundations
as not to flood theses areas and cause problems during the construction phase. The rammed earth internal walls will create the majority of the structure within each building. They provide separation of internal accommodation, control the internal climate through passive solar heating, retain the back filled site soil to allow re-instatement of the allotments over parts of the building, provide sound insulation and as previously discussed are used as a way of creating employment for the scheme. The cost of rammed earth walls is approximately the same as a masonry construction, however the costs are offset by the location of the materials and the cost of manufacturing them and transporting them to site. Earth from the Allotments with be excavated and then used in the walls and to back fill once construction has been completed. Therefore the majority of materials can be sourced on site reducing costs.
TWO.4 Architectural practice Given the context and history as to which the scheme as derived from it would be beneficial to the project that a design team with knowledge of the Berlin allotments and their heritage as the would be able to be more sympathetic to factors affecting planning, legislation and construction on such an important element of Berlin and Germany’s culture. Berlins architecture, most particularly residential blocks are designed based on various ‘Berlin Block’ typologies, consisting of accommodation surrounding social, communal spaces, for recreation and growing of crops benefitting the poor. Again A team aware of such architectural precedent would be able to relate to these planning considerations. The scheme revolves around community interaction, the chosen practice would need to be of kind who produce community proposals and can respond to their specific requirements. In conjunction with the importance of understanding the context within the scheme, an important part of the design involves an aquaponic growing facility. This type of system can require the height of technology and research, and therefore a secondary team would be required to provide the necessary information and design solutions for this type of facility who may not be adequate for the overall scheme design and thus would also have to be able to work in coherence with the other design team. My scheme is located in berlin, however will comply with the new RIBA Plan of Work that came into effect in 2013 as this benefits the proposal more than German documentation as it is more up to date. Particular attention will be paid to parts 4, 5 and 6.
TWO.5 Professional reflection During my thesis I have discovered a real passion for food through its necessity as a provider of nutrition and survival and how it can be implemented into architecture to solve social, economical and political problems at localized and community level. An area of the thesis researched into ways in which we can produce food on a personal level to become food secure using techniques such as growing in windowsills and balconies, gorilla gardening, Grow bio-intensive, roof gardening and small scale home aquaponics. This research has provoked a desire to put the knowledge gained into practice by growing my own varieties of foods in a sustainable manor, in an attempt to become food secure and provide basic food resources and necessary nutrients for myself. This would not only benefit my architectural interests but would link to other passions in life particularly fitness, sport and healthy eating. These elements of my lifestyle have all benefitted from the thesis work and I would like to pursue this further. Responding to community needs has been a repeated theme through the studios I have worked in and is also a great architectural interest of mine which I aim to put high on my priorities when designing a scheme. The response to Berlin’s food crisis aims to introduce localized responses to community needs through out the city, resolving issues on a small scale to correct one large issue. This theory and way of tackling architecture is something id focus on when sourcing work and in practice. Integrating with communities and becoming hands on to enable a clear understanding of what is required to get the best possible outcome.
The investigation into Berlin and researching other areas of Germany as well as projects in various other locations, nationally and internationally, boasting a wide variety of cultures and traditions as inspired me to also consider opportunities working in other countries, with communities that I may not understand and a wise array of policies that may need to be adhered to as well being limited by resources or construction techniques that may inform the design and outcomes. After all it is the problem solving that drives my passion for architecture and its is the challenge of solving these problems that makes them more desirable.
Bibliography
Prince Charles attacks food production methods at German symposium The Guardian, Monday 27 May 2013 19.26 BST Viktoria Vero on March 26, 2010 http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/food-security-issues-in-berlin http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/food-security-issues-in-berlin http://www.resilience.org/stories/2010-03-09/local-food-and-farming-revolution TED Talk, “How Food Shapes Our Cities,� Carolyn Steel, author of Hungry City, HM Government, 2010, (Building Regulations 2000: Approved Document B: Fire safety), London, NBS http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/umwelt/stadtgruen/kleingaerten/en/daten_fakten/index.shtml Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment RIBA Plan of Work 2013 www.ribaplanofwork.com
Curriculum Vitae