EAT THE CITY! BMW/URBAN/TRANSFORMS
PROBLEMS OF THE CITY: exploitation of natural resources, depletion of arable land
highly processed foods of unknown origin
EAT THE CITY’S SOLUTIONS:
limiting carbon footprint, introducing biodiversity in the city, maximizing cultivation area while using minimal city space ecological and transparent cultivation process, easily available food, produced locally in the middle of the city
transport of food from remote areas
agressive advertisements dominating urban space
unused blind walls and urban wasteland
innovative presence of brand in the city, revitalization of unused areas, utilitarian management of blind walls
Identifying problems Warsaw struggles with large scale advertising. Installing billboards is the most common way to utilize blind walls in the city center. The main obstacles in fighting illegal advertising are insufficient laws and the high revenues which the billboards bring to the owners of buildings. The lack of a profitable alternative makes the discussion about the spread of aggressive advertising even more difficult. After a few decades of uncritical love for everything that supermarkets have to offer, people are beginning to look for locally produced organic food and a way to reduce our impact on the environment. Urban agriculture in Poland is still in its early stages. Apart from the outburst of community social events in a last few years, enclosed communities are still the most popular form in newly built housing estates. Bonds formed between members of new communities are usually weak. Density in city centers is high, but on the other hand a lot of wastelands and empty spaces stay unused. Eat the city is a vertical urban greenhouse. It is a sustainable and healthy food lab. The cultivated area is about 90 m2, it would satisfy the annual demand of a single person. We propose a subversive transformation of the idea of the garden city and a different approach to advertising in urban space. It is also a way of utilizing the blind walls of buildings. Population growth in cities is forcing us to look for new ideas and promote local food production. Our project is an alternative for “traditional� green walls – it is easier to maintain, it produces food and brings measurable benefits to people. A built-in sea container serves as a multipurpose pavilion. It can be turned into a cafe, bar, meeting place, gallery, infobox. It can also serve as infrastructure for educational, social or commercial activities taking place on higher levels of the greenhouse and around it.
eat the city is:
eat the city gives: vegetables, herbs, flowers
salads, drinks, vegeburgers
a biodiverse farming system within the city without the need of long distance transport
integration, cooperation
alternative way of ommunication between brands and consumers
an alternative to ads as a way of organising unused space
an urban greenhouse producing healthy food without pesticides or chemistry
a movable, temporary structure built from reusable and recyclable materials without permanent foundations
urban life
Location The vertical greenhouse can be located next to any blind wall. Such walls are memories of war destruction and rebuilding of the city during the socialist period, easy to find in Poland. They can also be found in housing blocks and in contemporary office buildings with empty areas covering communication and technical cores. Poland lacks ideas for the creative use of blind walls. Sometimes they are covered with ivy or murals, but most often they carry chaotically arranged advertising displays, which became an inevitable part of the landscape in Polish cities.
Structure The greenhouse is built using modular scaffolding, which is not permanently connected to the ground. The scaffolding can be rented for the duration of the project or bought secondhand. The ground floor is positioned on a used sea container. After the project ends the entire structure can be disassembled, stored and assembled again in a different location, sold or put to another use. Structure height: 18.9m, width: 10.4m, depth: 1.75m, number of floors: 8.
Planting and watering system The plants are grown in modular bowls. Either using a hydroponic or soil-based system. The plants are watered with rain water collected by the elevation complemented with the city’s water system when necessary. Organic waste resulting from the cultivation can be composted in the greenhouse and processed into natural fertilizer. Proposed plant species include tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, arugula, carrots, chard, green beans, parsley, lavender, basil, mint, rosemary, chives or strawberries.
Facade The facade is made of 100% recyclable greenhouse foil formed into airbags and mounted to the scaffolding structure using aluminum profiles. The curvature of the airbags enables the elevation to collect water. Double-layered foil with air inside becomes a stiff material resistant to weather conditions. Closing the scaffolding structure with an elevation isolates the plants from fumes and accelerates their growth. Side can contain dedicated places for bird and insect nests.
Water circulation The specially designed facade catches more drops of water than a standard flat surface. Its surface is west-facing, which enables the greenhouse to catch more water, as the most common direction in which the wind blows in Warsaw is from the west. The carefully selected curvature of specially designed airbags, allows water to flow to a gutter located at the bottom of the facade, and then down to a reservoir on the ground floor. The plants are watered via an irrigation system. The water is filtered, nourished and pumped upwards. Then the water flows down using the force of gravity, nourishing the plants at all levels.
Interactive architecture The facade responds to pedestrian movement attracting attention of passersby and inviting them to get to know the vertical garden. Turning the light on and off depends on the proximity of pedestrians. The interactive system uses capacitive sensors, a dedicated program on the Arduino platform and LEDs. The airbags can be lit up via a trigger system activated by a text message sent to a dedicated phone number. In addition, everyone can follow the plants growth on the garden website thanks to webcams installed on every floor.
thank you and... enjoy your meal!
The team:
Jan Dowgiałło
Paulina Sulima
Anka Zawadzka
Iga Koł odziej
Architect. He was recently involved in design of Museum of The History of Polish Jews.
Graduated in media psychology. Works on digital solutions in advertising and communication, seeks for contemporary consumer trends and relations between customers and brands.
Architect and sociologist. Urban activist, member of a number of informal collectives including Warsaw Food Cooperative. She and Iga are involved in Odblokuj Association- an interdisciplinary group experimenting with participatory design and urban revitalization.
Landscape architect. Teaches workshops about urban gardening, coordinates cultural projects for NGOs, designs gardens and public spaces, specializes in temporary garden installations for cultural institutions and events. Active guerrilla gardener, having extensive plant knowledge, experienced in greening neglected urban spaces.
Anka and Jan are members of Polish Society of Natural Building. They established design studio which works in the fields of eco-architecture, urban gardening, installation and interventions.