the first law of
ecology is that everything is related to everything else - Barry Commoner
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Evolve to Grow Adapting vertical farming in abandoned buildings A report submitted for M.A. Interior Architecture and Design University of Lincoln by Kamsin Mirchandani June 2015
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I would like to thank my mentors Anna Catalani and Douglas Gittens for their support and guidance through my research. I am particularly grateful for the valuable knowledge given to me by architect Oscar Rodriguez of Architecture & Food. I wish to thank Indira Barve for her feedback on the drafts. Vincent Walsh, director of the Biospheric Foundation has been an inspiration, I would like to extend my thanks to him and his team.
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contents 00 abstract
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01 introduction
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02 ecology and evolution
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03 global challenges
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04 vertical farming
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05 case study
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06 regeneration
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07 conclusion
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Farming is historically antithetical to the urban setting. Taking place in rural scenes,theprototypicalfarmsprawlsout in pastoral landscapes for miles on end—it is often thought of as idyllic and an extension of nature. Cities are imagined as dense, chaotic farragoes of human technology and activity—concrete, artificial, and not “natural” in any sense of the word. In reality, however, farming is just as much of an “artificial” human invention as cities and skyscrapers are. (Germer 2011, Despommier 2014). In the next 20 years, 80% of the population will reside in cities. This comes with an enormous responsibility forourecologicalfootprint–howmuchof the resources do these cities require in order to just stay alive? These resources comefromthesurroundinglandscapeat a great expense, leaving us with the big challenges that we face today for the coming decades. This paper looks at the current agricultural methods, its alternatives as proposed by ecologist Dickson Despommier, and how they can be achieved in the urban grain derelict buildings.
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intro the world is running out...
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We have consumed a vast amount of fertile silt laden land, freshwater and energy from fossil fuels, in order to feed our growing population. In the process we have disrupted ecosystems, severely damaged biodiversity, and rapidly altered our climate. 870 million people go to bed hungry every night (UN, 2012), 1.4 billion people are overweight (WHO, 2008), food borne illnesses are on the rise, and our resources are scarce. It is clear that innovative solutions are needed. This research addresses the current paradigms and challenges of the global food crisis and provides an overview of how we can make our cities more adaptive systems, where buildings act as a lever within the ecosystem synergizing agriculture and urban existence. By bridging the gap between countryside farming and city dwelling, we can begin to answer some of these concerns. How can vertical farming be adapted into abandoned buildings? Aim: To explore how we can develop designs that exploit the synergies that occur in both agriculture and the use of a building.
The motivation for this research has been influenced by the discovery that an increased number of buildings fall into disuse and dereliction and that an effort to resurrect them into spaces that are meaningful and significant to society is an area often neglected. Contemporary architectural discourse is not entirely responsive to the current paradigms and challenges we face. Consequently, I have been driven to examine the limits and potentials of food production inside buildings that engage with their surrounding environment. The primary audience of my research is an interdisciplinary group of people, comprising architects, designers, ecologists, and members specializing in urban planning theory. The larger aim is to reach a wider audience of environmentally conscious practitioners. For the discipline and practice of interior architecture, my research will offer a way to reconsider our decaying infrastructure as potential ecological infrastructure that achieves coherence and synergy through benign bio integration with the environment.
Objectives: 1. To outline the evolution of agriculture through the years, and its effects on the environment. 2. To evaluate indoor agriculture as a proposed alternative to current farming methods. 3. To devise a set of criteria and influences for developing spaces of urban agriculture within abandoned buildings.
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The current ways of thinking about the process of innovation in agriculture are embedded in a particular epistemology, which is in methods for knowing on the basis of knowledge that which hitherto has remained largely unchallenged. (Roling, N., Wagemakers, M., 2000) This framework appears on an objective spectrum and can be catagorised at Positivism. Here, the knower is distinct from the object of inquiry. However, in order to achieve paradigmatic innovation in this subject, the strategy for this report will be that of Logical Argumentation and Qualitative Research, whereby a set of previously disparate factors can be taken and interconnected into unified frameworks. The data collection tactics involve Archival Documents, in situ observation and analysis of sites, interviews in open ended response formats, web content analysis, social media research, interactive web seminars and blogs.
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The report begins by providing a brief history of human ecology and agriculture. It looks at the consequences of our decisions that came about through the advancements of our technology. Next, it puts forth the concept of an alternative method of growing food along with its theoretical concerns and critical evaluation of its claims. It explores its various forms and integration typologies, to better understand its relationship with architecture. It then looks at a live case study, The Biospheric Foundation, based in Manchester. The investigation of this system will shed light on strategies that can be used in order to find suitable sites and buildings for the purpose of growing food. After critical appraisal of all the research conducted, a set of criteria and influences for the design of vertical farming within abandoned buildings will be made.
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ecology & evolution analysing the consequences of human activities as a chain of effects through the ecosystem and human social system 13
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Human ecology is the relationships between people and their environment, where the environment is perceived as an ecosystem. An ecosystem is everything in a specified area – the air, soil, water, living organisms, and physical structures, including everything built by humans. (Marten, G., 2001) The human social system is about people, and the psychology and social organization that shape their behavior. In order to meet people’s needs, the ecosystem provides services to the social system by moving materials, energy and information. The biosphere is made up of all that is living on earth, from the smallest bacterium to the largest whale. It is a life-supporting global ecosystem, where all living things depend on each other and the environment for nutrients and energy. This took place over billions of years of evolutionary history, making symbiosis the only explanation for how nutrients become recycled. From the beginning, the interplay between cultural and natural processes
resulted in significant changes in both the biophysical environment and the life conditions of humans. (Boyden, S., 1992) With the growth of human population and its interaction with nature, changes are now evident on a massive scale, affecting the quality of human life and the functioning of biological systems world over. Photosynthesis and germination are processes that have existed well before man, but seed selection, irrigation, and harvesting are all human ways of harnessing plants. (Despommier 2014). This was the start of the agricultural revolution. Thus there is little inherently “natural” about farming. Farming catalyzed our transformation from primitive hunter-gatherers to sophisticated urban dwellers in just 10,000 years. All early farming activities consisted in essence of the deliberate redistribution of plant and animal species in a given area, (Boyden, S. 1992) allowing people to spend most of their time in one place instead of covering big distances in search of food.
IMAGE 2.02 - Interaction of the human social system with the ecosystem
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Improvements in technology after the Industrial Revolution allowed an increase in food production, but at the expense of the environment. Mechanization gave farmers the ability to structure ecosystems more than had been possible with only human and animal labour. (Marten, G., 2001, 31) Modernism ushered in the lack of urban resilience largely due to struggling economies, unemployment, poverty, but also because of the new found use of fossil fuels as energy. This allowed us to essentially displace our ecosystem which used to be interconnected and intertwined. Coal displaced the relationship between the countryside and the city through railways, ostracizing farming as a non-urban activity. We decided to consider the production of food as a lowly endeavor that should only be done by the peasant. It was part of our very antiquated elitism, which overtime
after many wars we have started to question. (Rodriguez, O., 2014) Atmospheric CO2 concentration has been on the rise ever since, causing the earth’s temperature to escalate resulting in global warming. The most recent increase in human carrying capacity began about 40 years ago, with the Green revolution, which used modern plant breeding to create high yield varieties of crops. (Marten, G., 2001, 33). This demanded the ideal growing conditions of an abundance of water, optimal fertilizer applications and the use of chemical pesticides to avoid crop damage. Humans have increased their carrying capacity since the Agricultural Revolution, however, whether advances in agricultural technology will enable increase in food production for the years to come, is a paradigm worth experimenting.
IMAGE 2.03 - Increase in carrying capacity and human population
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Coadaptation (fitting together) and coevolution (changing together) are emergent properties of ecosystems. (Marten, G., 2001, 61) Human social systems adapt to their environment and vice versa. Natural ecosystems organize themselves and their outputs for human use include renewable natural resources such as wood, fish and water. Agricultural and urban ecosystems are organized in part by human inputs of materials, energy and information. Agricultural ecosystems provide outputs of food, fibre and other renewable resources. Urban ecosystems provide human habitation and industrial output.
Coadaptation is a consequence of coevolution. “In evolutionary time, the instances of coevolution have increased as sociability in life has increased. The more copious life’s social behaviors are, the more likely they are to be subverted into mutually beneficial interactions. The more mutually responsive we construct our economic and material world, the more co-evolutionary games we’ll see.” (Kelly, 2008, 71)
IMAGE 2.04 - Inputs and outputs of materials, energy and information with agricultural and urban ecosystems
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the global challenges addressing the issues... 17
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In the 4th century Plato, referring to the disappearance of forests, wrote : “What now remains compared with what then existed, is like a the skeleton of a sick man, all the fat and soft earth having been wasted away, and only the bare framework of the land being left.� Today, over 800 million hectares is committed to soil-based agriculture, or about 38% of the total landmass of the earth. Around the world, agriculture accounts for 37% of employment, 80% of fresh water use and up to 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is anticipated that there will be 1.7 billion more people on the planet by the year 2030, and 3 billion more by 2050.
Modern industrial farming techniques in the countryside have a devastating effect on biodiversity. The combination of fertilizer and pesticide use with habitat destruction means that urban environments are now often more species rich in fauna and flora than their rural counterparts. (Viljoen, Bohn, Howe, 2005) Today’s cities fail to meet even the minimum standards of self-resilience. No city lives within its own means. Everything consumed is produced outside the city, and as a result, waste accumulates at an alarming rate. (Despommier, D., 2010)
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vertical farming bridging the gap....
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Ecological design is the use of design principles and strategies to design our built environment and our ways of life so that they integrate benignly and seamlessly with the natural environment. In essence, it is the process by which our human purposes are carefully and harmoniously meshed with larger patterns, flows and processes, and physical disposition of the natural world. (Yeang, K., 2006, 25) Repairing the environment and still having enough to eat may seem like mutually exclusive goals. How do we expect to feed the growing population without further cutting down forests for agriculture and allowing the environment to heal itself? When you run out of land, the natural inclination is to build upwards. In theory the solution is straightforward: Grow most of our food crops within specially constructed buildings located inside the city limits using methods that do not require soil. (Despommier, D., 2010)
The concept of vertical farming is based on the creation of buildings that act as stacked up greenhouses, and use controlled indoor environment agriculture to produce food, employing the new modalities of growing, all while recycling fresh water and conserving energy resources. These new modalities include aeroponics, hydroponics and aquaponics. It is the farm of the future producing crops to sustain life, food culture and local economies. (Buglovski, B. 2012) This would allow for the conversion of an equivalent amount of farmland back into whatever ecosystem was there originally, usually hardwood forest. The regrowth of the forests would eventually sequester significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and begin the healing process. Biodiversity would be increased, and ecosystem services such as flood control and cleaning of the air would be strengthened.
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The Association of Vertical Farming have developed a typology chart, which helps to better understand the ways in which vertical farming projects can be developed. This includes identifying:
The placement of the agricultural technology with respect to the built space,
The role of the organization
The exposure to natural or artificial light. The production purpose
The integration method of the food within the building
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The growing medium for the crops
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Ideally, the vertical farm is a complex of buildings constructed in close proximity to one another. The spaces would incorporate the following areas: Farm for Growing food / conducting research Offices for management Control centre for monitoring Nursery for selecting and germinating seeds Quality control lab to monitor food safety Documentation zone for nutritional status of crop Eco education tourist centre for the general public Green market Restaurant
Plant production The space for growing food would be a flexible one, allowing the the team of indoor agriculture scientists the maximum freedom to configure the conditions the crops will be subjected to. (Despommier, D. 2010) Photovoltaics to supply the energy needed to run electrical equipment. Sunlight to supply energy needed to grow the crops (north-south exposure) Narrow long and low interiors. Buildings with deeper interiors could take advantage of newly developed, specially constructed composite plastic parabolic mirrors. These can be situated outside and behind the building to first concentrate, then direct light to interior sections. Fibre optics leading from the collecting Crop yield mirrors outside to the inside of the building to assist in the distribution of energy to the Output of crop production supplies food to the plants on each each floor. restaurant and cafe, providing an additional source of revenue. If sunlight is the main source of energy, then the building should be made as transparent The organic green market is a space for farm-toas possible. table sale of produce.
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Infrastructure Integration
Systems Monitoring
The ability to control the indoor climate, The farm is fully integrated into the city's infrastructure, taking in waste and producing including humidity, light and temperature food, energy and clean water. Its components The research lab will allow scientists to study include geothermal heat pumps, anaerobic and improve the existing processes and digesters, wastewater treatment etc. growing technologies Quality control lab will examine crops throughout their growth and before shipment.
IMAGE 4.05 Workforce A workforce of varying skills will support the daily operations of the farm. Managers, engineers, agronomists, accountants, sales people, waste-toenergy personnel, laboratory personnel and a large unskilled labor force. Eco-education centre An exhibition space will teach visitors the principles of sustainable food production, providing a hands-on experience. A large space for community gardens provides nearby residences the opportunity to grow their own food.
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The complexity of the designed system lies in the level of vertical integration. Buildings that are intensive in mass pose challenging in this aspect. The approaches to achieving this are: Creating large vertical slots and incisions in the built form that bring biomass, vegetation, daylight, rainwater and natural ventilation into its inner depths. (Yeang, K. 2006, 294) These become cellular voids cutting across all floors. Integrating the artificial system (the building) physically and systemically with the processes of its own host organism, the ecosystems in the biosphere. Here the design marries the integration of operational functions with the ecosystem funcions to enable them to act as a whole in recycling of nutrients, accessing energy pathways and flows etc. (Yeang, K. 2006, 294)
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case study the pioneers...
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Blackfriars is a small community in Salford, Manchester. It is an impoverished area, largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers markets and healthy food providers. Vincent Walsh, the founder of The Biospheric Project describes it as a ‘food desert’ and suggests that his scheme has the potential to tackle the problem. The project aims to see how architects and urban designers can challenge contemporary food systems. It is located in an abandoned warehouse on the river Irwell. The scheme is a practical demonstration of how ‘food miles’ can be transformed into ‘food steps’ providing fresh produce for local people. This has been done through their shop ’78 steps’ located just steps away from the warehouse building.
The worms are then fed to the fish, the fish create waste, which is irrigated to various crop systems throughout the building to provide nutrients. The plants cleanse the water, which is sent back to the fish tank. The design and space planning of these integrated systems within the building has been illustrated via the exploded building diagram. This helps to understand the activities, their allocation and their sizes. How they relate to one and another is shown in the diagram below. This case study shows how the scope, if applied in a cultural meaningful way in appropriate environments, could potentially create powerful agri-tectures, reconnecting the physical and cultural urban space with a culturally significant food production and consumption. (Bernardi, E. 2012)
The shop creates both green (leaf crops) and brown (cardboard) waste which are sent to the vermiculture system, where
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IMAGE 5.04 - Entry to Biospheric Foundation
IMAGE 5.05 - 1st Floor
IMAGE 5.06 - Rooftop greenhouse
IMAGE 5.07 - Free range chickens at roof
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IMAGE 5.08 - Hydroponic window farms
IMAGE 5.09 - Rooftop seminars
IMAGE 5.10 - Hyper local market - 78 steps
IMAGE 5.11 - Forest garden
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regeneration retrofitting abandoned buildings as vertical farms 37
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Industrial ruins are a fascinating type of architecture. It is as if time stood still the moment the building became abandoned. (Cannoo, J., 2014). Nature begins to take over, some form of art or expressions appears, and a certain aesthetic appeal is found in these ruinous atmospheres. Although the patina of time can indeed improve upon the appearance of a stately edifice, the interior workings of a building are often significantly compromised and were rarely built to meet the demands of today’s world. (Bloszies, C., 2012)
re-address the meaning and value of the existing built fabric.
The values of new construction appeal to the current desires of a community. Values like program, energy efficiency, and technological advancements continuously change throughout time and new construction adheres with the current progress to facilitate these needs. Historic structures on the other hand are based off of experiences which are achieved through time and use. These values are through Remodelling is the process of altering a memories, architectural relevance, and building, where the function is the most representation of site and place. obvious change, compelling us to (Rotenberger, E. 2013)
IMAGE 6.02 - The values of new construction and historic stuctures
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The modern function of indoor farming within an old building is a relationship that current architecture is still exploring, trying to establish designs that allow the values of both to be combined. In thriving cities, older industrial districts have fallen into disuse. The use of these disused buildings for urban agriculture has economic potential, is energy saving and brings cultural value to the city. The decision to adapt a site and building depends on several initial criteria and influences. These are:
What synergies can be exploited by retrofitting? How do the functions operate adjacent to each other? Are there any conflicts, and is it possible to design these out? Are neighbouring logistics interrupted or affected?
6. Low energy consumption – it can be thermally efficient and have low running costs. How does the building configuration work with maximizing solar access, and how is this explained? Are there beneficial synergies utilized with growing food in building such as capture of 1. Context for planning - "why are you doing waste heat, rainwater collection and it and does it need it?" storage, or tapping into waste water Questioning whether the area of the city sources for irrigation? selected is appropriate in terms of the needs and demands of the society. This 7. Weatherproof – it is wind and water tight. also explores if the proposal fits these aspirations that have not been previously 8. Comfortable – it has a secure and addressed. healthy indoor environment. 2. Site ecosystem – The ecological history of the site will shed light on past human intervention and the current state of its succession. This analysis dictates the overall design strategy for the infrastructure based on taxonomy of site types, categorizing the extent of biodiversity and human involvement.
9. Statutory controls – ease of approvals for redevelopment from local planning authority. Is the old building protected in any way and are the regulatory barriers too complex to overcome? 10. Planning constraints – rights of light, likely local opposition, etc...
3. Durability - it resists wear and tear and has a long life. What is the condition of the 11. Cost considerations - how do regulatory building and to what standards was it barriers affect execution/cost. Listed initially designed to? buildings would be more expensive to 4. Structure - foundations, load paths and intervene in.
roof, including the building's acceptance of 12. Access – it is easily navigable both a transfer structure externally and internally 5. Adaptability – it accommodates future changes What is the target and does the old building accommodate it" (does it have risers and space for new plant and services)
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In conclusion, whole communities can be co-evolutionary. When our buildings adapt to the ecosystem around them, they will act as an indirect co-evolutionary agent. This way, they partake in drect symbiosis and indirect mutual influence. Creating opportunities for decentralized systems of food, water, waste and energy in communities, through indoor farming where we live and work can increase urban resiliency and efficiency and eventually create urban regenerative environments.
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references
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Bernardi, E. (2012) Un-dissociating Kelly, K. (2008). Out of Control. architecture and agriculture: Urban food Marten, G. (2001). Human Ecology - Basic and Agri-tecture concepts for sustainable development Bloszies, C. (2012) Old Buildings, New (Rodriguez, O., 2014) designs Brooker, G., Stone, S. (2004). Rereadings: Interior architecture and the deisgn principles of remodeling existing buildings.
Roling, N., Wagemakers,M. (2000) Facilitating sustainable agriculture : participatory learning and adaptive management in times of environmental uncertainty
Boyden, S. (1992). Biohistory: The interplay E. (2013). Restoring between human society and the Rotenberger, Authenticity through Adaptive Reuse biosphere - Past and Present. Buglovski, B. (2012). Farm follows function: Russo, J. (2015) Locavoracious: The Future of Urban Agriculture a solution for future urban farming Canoo, J. (2014). Industrial Ruins: Viljoen, A. ,Bohn, K. , Howe, J. (2005) Productive Urban Abandonment, Aesthetics & Reclamation Continuous Landscapes - Designing urban agriculture Despommier, D. (2010). The Vertical Farm: for sustainable cities Feeding world in the 21st century Weigand, A., (2009) Vertical Farming Case Studies Douglas, J. (2002) Building Adaptation Groat, L., Wang, D. (2013). Architectural Yeang, K. (2006). Ecodesign - A manual for ecological design Research Methods Fairbrother, N. (2014). Urban Agriculture
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IMAGE REFERENCES Cover_ Steven Lockhart, Vertical Farming: Feeding Singapore's Future
4.05_ Benjamen Buglovski, Farm follows function 4.06_ Aecom, Urban Food Jungle
1.01 _ Dan Dup, Abandoned Warehouse artistic render 1.02_ http://app.emaze.com/949182/agr icultural-and-industrial-revolution#1 1.03_ Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace - Cows and smoke
4.07_ Ken Yeang, Eco Design: A manual for ecological Design 5.01_ author's own image 5.02_ The Biospheric Foundation 5.03_ The Biospheric Foundation
1.04_ author's own image 5.04_ author's own image 2.01_http://imgkid.com/protistapictures.shtml 2.02_ redrawn by author: Gerald Marten, Human Ecology
5.05_ Biospheric Foundation 5.06_ author's own image 5.07_ author's own image
2.03_ redrawn by author: Gerald Marten, Human Ecology 2.04_ redrawn by author: Gerald Marten, Human Ecology
5.08_ Biospheric Foundation 5.09_ www.mif.co.uk 5.10_ www.mif.co.uk
3.01_ https://commons.wikimedia.org/w ikiDowntown_Manhattan_From_Aeropla ne.jpg
5.11_ www.mif.co.uk 6.01_ Pinterest - regeneration
3.02_ Association of Vertical Farming 3.03_ Association of Vertical Farming
6.02_ Evan Rotenberger, Restoring Authenticity through Adaptive Reuse Process Book
3.04_ Association of Vertical Farming 4.01_ 4.02_ Aecom, Urban Food Jungle
6.03_ http://www.wired.co.uk/news/arc hive/2014-07/11/indoor-farm 6.04_ Steven Lockhart, Vertical Farming: Feeding Singapore's Future
4.03_ Aecom, Urban Food Jungle 6.05_ The Biospheric Foundation 4.04_ Association for Vertical Farming
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