A New Infrastructure of Urban Agriculture in Detroit
LANDRACE
LANDRACE (n.) A landrace is a domesticated, regional ecotype; a locally adapted, traditional variety of a domesticated species of animal or plant that has developed over time, through adaptation to its natural and cultural environment of agriculture and pastoralism, and due to isolation from other populations of the species.
K. OLDHAM // SPRING 2016 // CAPSTONE
Why Urban Agriculture?
1,500
Obesity is currently the
2nd
the average miles one meal has to travel to get from farm to plate
2%
of Americans live on farms. They have to feed the rest of the 98% of us
A dead zone the size of Connecticut in the Gulf of Mexico because of the fertilizers and other poisons
leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. Our current system of Agriculture is broken. Something needs to change
We live in a world shaped by food. Food has the potential to be an extremely powerful tool-- a conceptual tool, a design tool, a tool that can shape the world differently. What we often don’t realize in our postindustrial revolution society is that we think of food wrong. It is not a series of puzzle pieces of nutrients that fuel us. Food in itself is holistic, it has the power to build communities, to create jobs, to impact the framework of our cities. Think of all of the things that we use food for-- we have birthday cakes, celebratory dinners, even an entire holiday that centers around food. Yet most of us don’t even know where our food is coming from, much less what is in it. Current agricultural practices reportedly destroy approximately 6 pounds of soil for each pound of food produced. The United States croplands are losing topsoil about 18 times faster than the soil formation rate. This is not sustainable. In fact, worldwide only about 42 to 84 years’ worth of topsoil remains. Something must change. That change, if done rightly, can rebuild economies, communities, it can raze blight. That is what this project is about.
Why Detroit? Conventional agriculture growing methods need 1.2 acres to grow food for one person. There are 688,701 people in Detroit (2013), which means, by conventional agriculture methods, it would take 826,442 acres to feed Detroit. We would need 10 Detroits full of just urban agriculture to feed everyone.
There are 88,960 acres total in Detroit
...and 25,600 acres of vacant land in Detroit
The good news is, we don’t have to use conventional agriculture. Biointensive agriculture is better for the soil, organic, and can grow enough food for 1 person in less than 5,000 square feet. So, to feed the population of Detroit, we just need 79,051 acres. That definitely will fit within the limits of Detroit now.
It is bigger than the available vacant land. That’s ok, because some of these interventions don’t require vacant land.
Detroit’s problems have become a major spotlight for creating the “new city of the world” as designers and engineers and world-leading problemsolvers try and figure out how to heal a broken city. More than that, creating a future for Detroit means creating hope for all cities. But more specifically, why Detroit for urban agriculture? Detroit is one of the largest cities in terms of land mass, being able to fit Boston, San Francisco and Manhattan within its city limits. More than that, Detroit has soaring land vacancy, sparse grocery stores, the everubiquitous American obesity problem, and, in a more hopeful light, urban agriculturalists are already beginning to take root there. But urban agriculture in Detroit has the potential for so much more than the grassroots that have already started taking place. By creating agriculture as a closed-loop city-wide infrastructure, agriculture has the potential to improve the social, economic and aesthetic impacts of the city. Detroit is a city that is trying to usher in a new era-- a new era for itself and for the rest of the country. It is the perfect setting for revolutionary ideas, for ideas that can change the way we design, use, and perceive cities. Food is the perfect cornerstone to build these ideas on. It is a staple of humanity, it is the foundation of community, it will never go out of style. But, in creating a new system of urban agriculture, we are also going to need to re-evaluate the way that we do grow, eat, and prepare food. The current way that we do isn’t going to fit within a city. It’s not going to fit in the world in a few more years, because of the sorry state of our topsoil and the pollution the fertilizers and pesticides create. Many people have realized this, of course, and have started their own research and studies on how to grow more food on less land, without the use of chemicals. John Jeavons, in his book How to Grow More Vegetables than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine hearkens to the historical farming methods all over the world with his Biointensive Method. This method was popularly used all over the world for thousands of years, until the industrial revolution mechanized things. Emerging rooftop planting technologies are also vital in this movement, opening up untapped acreage in the city.
Why not Detroit Future City? But Detroit already did a giant planning document! Haven’t you read Future City? Yes. But this tiny square right here is how much they allotted for urban agriculture under their Innovation Productive land use type. Instead of creating an integrated food system, they set aside a paltry 5,034 acres to grow food on.
The 2012 Detroit Future City Plan is an excellent beginning to the conversation of how can Detroit can bring itself into becoming the “new city of the future.” It does extensive analysis on the city itself, and give anyone working within the city a great starting point to create something great. But reading through the document and trying to apply it to design, the Future City Plan is too vague. It is not comprehensive enough for this project, though, is that there is no infrastructure in place for food systems. The closest Future City gets is a vague reference to a farm typology of land, and allotting 5,034 acres to Innovation Productive landscapes. This is a great allowance, and something that cities everywhere haven’t done. However, to make the food system, and Detroit, truly great, food should be looked at as a comprehensive infrastructure.
What Needs to Happen? Create a Complete Food System
CONCEPT There are really four main ideas that are driving the design and implementation of this project. The first is that for any urban agriculture system to actually work and feed the city, it must be a closed-loop system. The external inputs for food should be minimized to the highest degree. This way, the city is not only sustaining itself, but the city, too will be reaping economic benefits from all of that jobs that are created through implementing this system. Since it is a system that everyone will rely on daily, the economy will be more stable as well, creating job security and encouraging more population growth.
Food Systems Build Communities
The second driving concept is that a city is made up of many smaller communities of people. If these food systems are built on a community scale, and then replicated through the city, then each community will become stronger socially, economically, and aesthetically, since the food system will affect all of these on a neighborhood scale. This will help encourage vibrant neighborhoods with high economic diversity, as well as a strong sense of neighborly community, since everyone will be connecting because of food.
Create Connectivity between and within communities
Create a City-Wide Food Support System
A Complete City with rehabilitated communities and a fully integrated food system
The third driving concept is that each of these communities be connected within themselves and to other communities. These individual communities are ultimately the building blocks of what makes up the city of Detroit. The final idea is to have a city-wide food support system. This support system will serve, one, as a method of connectivity between communities but two, it will be a way to complete the food system that may be lacking in some communities. The main goal of this support system is to ensure that food is accessible everywhere, not just areas of high income or low vacancy. By applying these four concepts, a complete city will be created, with rehabilitated communities and a fully integrated food system.
50 Year Land Use Detroit Future City
Race Demographics (2010)
Graphic by Dustin Cable (http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html)
This is the Detroit Future City 50 Year Land Use plan. This analysis is important in order to fit the design of this infrastructure within the design of the Future City Plan. The other importance is when choosing an area to zoom in on, it should have as many of these land use types within it in order to best design a replicable system throughout the city.
Housing Vacancy
Race demographics were part of the initial analysis process. While there was a correlation between race and some of the other analysis information, in the end, the race of an area did not affect design.
Railroads in Detroit
Housing Vacancy was another factor considered when choosing an area to focus in on in Detroit. Areas with high vacancy had potential for greater impact through urban agriculture initiatives.
Median Income
The existing railroad system in Detroit has a great opportunity to become an integral part of the food infrastructure in the city. An ideal focus area will be railroad adjacent to be able to further explore the opportunities that are presented through the railroads
Food Map of Detroit
Median income was a high priority analysis factor that went into choosing the focus area for this project. The implementation of a urban agriculture infrastructure should ameliorate issues of poverty and economic income. Therefore, designing in a lower-income area will highlight the impact on income this new design can have.
Areas with High Vacancy and Low Median Income
The locations of different types of food was also a necessary analysis, in order to further understand the existing conditions and see what areas could benefit the most from certain urban agriculture initiatives.
Selected Focus Area Based on Analysis
This is a combined map showing areas of high vacancy and low median income. Since these are two major factors that go into choosing a focus area, analysis of their overlap locations was important.
The final focus area, a portion of the Rosa Parks neighborhood, was chosen through an overlap of high vacancy, low median income, railroad adjacent, and finally, had six different 50 Year Land Use land types that fell within its borders. There also were no nearby grocery stores.
Rosa Parks Neighborhood
Existing Land Use This diagram illustrates the existing land use that is happening within this community.
Based on the analysis that was done on the city, this portion of the Rosa Parks Neighborhood was chosen to be the community that was focused on to design, and then replicate, the urban agriculture infrastructure within a smaller community. There are six different 50 Year Land Use types that are proposed within this section: District Center, Neighborhood Center, Live + Make, Green Mixed Rise, Traditional Medium Density, and Innovation Ecological. The first step in designing the infrastructure, was to see the current existing land use, compare it to the proposed land use, and then figure out what opportunities presented themselves for urban agriculture interventions. Though the 50 Year Land Use plan shows hard lines on land use type, the key was to ensure that the community felt connected and holistic. Many of the opportunities for typology interventions were applicable to more than one land use, which helped with the blurring of these lines.
50 Year Land Use Detroit Future City This is the projected 50 year land use plan that is to be implemented on this site. The key is to reconcile existing land use with the proposed land use, while implemented an entire new infrastructure of urban agriculture.
CONNECTING LAND USE TO A COMPLETE FOOD INFRASTRUCTURE These diagrams illustrate the different opportunities that are available to be applied to different land uses proposed in the 50 year Future City plan and how these opportunities fit in with a healthy and complete food system within the community.
GROWING + OPERATIONS
PROCESSING
STORAGE + DISTRIBUTION
SELLING + BUYING
SUSTAINABLE URBAN FOOD SYSTEM These eight components are what comprise a complete and sustainable urban food system. If the holistic interventions made in Detroit contain all eight components, the food system will be complete.
EATING + CELEBRATION
IMPLEMENTED TYPOLOGIES These diagrams illustrate the replicable typologies developed to specifically address problems that exist in the Rosa Parks Neighborhood. These developed typologies contain a mosaic of the intervention types that are shown as opportunities in the diagrams above. The captions with the typologies show not only the yield potential and make-up of different inventions, but also the different aspects of the complete food system that the typology fulfills.
1. Productive Green Roof
EDUCATION + BRANDING
POLICY + ADVOCACY
2. Conservatory + Research Garden A glorified greenhouse, this conservatory is used to grow seasonal plants and as an educational center. Other components are a productive and water filtering greenroof and a mob-grazing research garden
Yield: 11,000 lbs/ acre
Yield:130,680 lbs/acre; MobGrazing: 131,800 lbs/acre
4. Company Food Garden
3. Wellness Garden
This is a greenroof system whose primary purpose is to grow food. These systems need to be intensive systems in order to provide enough growing medium to be productive.
WASTE + RECYCLE MANAGEMENT
In this specific case, the wellness garden is also a rooftop garden. The wellness garden is a place for the sick, invalid, elderly or anyone in search of peace can come and work on gardening in a therapeutic manner. The goal of this typology is not production, but rather human wellness.
Comprised of a water filtration greenroof, a cafe, and a productive garden. The productive garden uses biointensive growing methods to increase yields and not drain the soil of nutrients.
5. Food Hub
This is a place adjacent to the railroad where fresh produce from Michigan Central Station can be delivered all over the city. It serves as a grocery store, a place to eat, and a place to learn different ways to cook fresh produce.
Yield: 116,428 lbs/ acre Yield: Not a productive typology
Yield: No measurable crop yield
6. Forum
The hub of the community, the forum is a place of exchange, whether it be through the buying and selling of food, an exchange of conversation or the exchange of interaction with nature.
7. Residential Garden
Yield: Demonstration: 116,428 lbs /acre, Roof top: 11,000 lbs/acre
For residential areas that have mixed to high vacancy, this typology can be adapted. The vacant lots can be used as the neighborhood community gardens, while at-home residential gardens can be used for the family’s growing needs. The produce can either be eaten or sold.
8. Composting
Yield: Not a productive typology
Yield: 3,480 lbs/household
9. Garden Block
10. Storage For a block that is completely vacant, a garden block can be adapted to grow food. This can either be supported via a company or community group, or it can be divided out into different plots for individual use. Yield: 116,428 lbs/acre
Buildings that have previous industrial use in areas of low residence and high industry can be used for food storage Yield: Not a productive typology
For residential areas that have mixed to high vacancy, this typology can be adapted. The vacant lots can be used as the neighborhood community gardens, while at-home residential gardens can be used for the family’s growing needs. The produce can either be eaten or sold.
11. Detroit Dehesa The Dehesa is an ecological landscape that functions as a multi-purpose agricultural landscape. Timber, animals, and crops are all harvested and managed sustainably in this landscape type. Yield: 62 lbs/ acre (reflects edible yields only)
Rosa Parks Master Plan
Hospital Green Roof
Agriculture Block
Wellness Garden
Dehesa Habitat Corridor
Forum
Play-Scape Food Hub
Detroit Dehesa
Conservatory
Mob Grazing
Corporate Landscape
Corporate Productive Green Roof
Green Mixed Rise
Composting
LEGEND Live + Make: Industrial re-purpose, with emphasis towards food growing, processing or storage
Green Mixed Rise
Traditional Medium Density: Traditional Single Family housing, these properties have the potential to grow enough produce to support the family’s caloric needs
District Center: This District Center focuses on the Henry Ford Hospital. Since “district center” implies that people from all over, not just the Rosa Parks neighborhood community, this should being a self-sufficient system within the system
Neighborhood Center: Mixed-use and business focus, with emphasis on providing services for everyday needs of the people. Should comprise of a community hub and resources for people to get locally grown food
Tabletop Raised Road: Pedestrian-centric, but allows all modes of transport 200’
0’ 100’
400’
Feeding The Family PHASING FOR FEEDING THE FAMILY
SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR HOME GARDEN Just how the entire city needs a support system, the residential aspect will require a support system to help those who have little to no experience growing crops. This support can be in the form of a seed library, expert help, tool sharing, as well as opportunities for private crop companies to come to each out and work on the gardens, much like there are landscaping companies today.
VACANT
Expert Help
TRANSITIONAL
The key to designing for residences in Detroit is to have a phasing plan that takes high vacancy into account and has a plan for how to address that vacancy, whether the block is to remain vacant or if the block is to be revitalized. All of the design moves made for the residential part of the community were kept in alignment with the phasing potential of each lot. The next vital design consideration is to ensure that there are high crop yields for just a small amount of land. Nature grows plants close together rather than in rows. The biointensive method of growing food takes advantage of nature’s propensity to fill any void with living plants through maximizing yields by growing bountiful crops on a minimal amount of area.
Tool Sharing
Keeping the nutrients within the family garden, as well as learning how to minimize the amount of nutrients we need to bring in from the outside, are important tasks if we are to grow a high percentage of our food on a small allotment of land. Soon we simply will not have the luxury of taking nutrients from one soil to feed another. That is why, through composting and other methods, it is important to take care of the soil we have and make sure we are utilizing it to its highest sustainable ability.
Seed Library
POPULATED
FOOD GARDEN (4 People) - Summer/Fall
Areas that are primarily residential, despite small lot sizes, have potential to grow up to 80% of a four-person family’s needs on just 1,302 SF. This can be done with space left over for outdoor space that can be utilized for enjoyment and not just productivity.
Cosmos + Zinnas Corn Tomatoes Radishes Melons Beans Stocks Broccoli Spinach Calendulas
Chard Cabbage Lettuce Sunflowers Sweet Potatoes Celery Cucumbers Zucchini Green Peppers Potatoes
Bush Peas Corn Tomatoes Eggplant Onions Beets Brassicas Carrots Spinach Basil, Dill, Parsley, Garlic
Chard Cabbage Lettuce Sunflowers Sweet Potatoes Celery Cucumbers Zucchini Green Peppers Potatoes
The people in Biosphere 2, a closed-system living project in Arizona during the 1990s, used techniques based on those rediscovered by Ecology Action: They raised 80% of their food for 2 years within a closed system. Their experience demonstrates that a complete year’s diet for 1 person could be raised on the equivalent of just 3,403 SF. In contrast, it currently takes commercial agriculture 15,000 to 30,000 SF to do the same. Moreover, commercial agriculture has to bring in large inputs from other areas and soils just to make this possible, depleting other soils in the process. EXISTING CONDITIONS
Shows existing conditions on a vacant block
FOOD GARDEN (4 People) - Spring/Summer
ANALYZE EXISTING CONDITIONS
Remove derelict buildings and analyze soil conditions
PLANTING SCHEDULE
CHICORY Presence of Chicory, Wild Carrot, or Queen Ann’s Lace means the soil is low in fertility
CROP AREA PERCENTAGES
MILKWEED Milkweed is a sign that the soil lacks zinc
These planting percentages are reflected in the landscape design and planting plan at the top of the page. The 60% of the carbon-and-calorie crops that produce large amounts of carbon for compost and that also produce food in the form of significant amounts of calories. To grow nitrogen needed to make a good compost, legumes will need to be interplanted with these crops; for example, fava beans among wheat in winter and bush beans with corn in summer.
60% Carbon-andCalorie Crops 10% Vegetable Crops 30% High-Calorie Root Crops
FIELD-MUSTARD Yellow-Flowered weeds thrive in sulfur-depleted fields THISTLE Thistle thrives when soil is too compact, so there is not enough air for proper germination
Approximately 30% in special root diet crops that produce large amounts of calories. A maximum of 10% in vegetable crops for additional vitamins and minerals. Up to 3/4 of this of this area may be used for income crops, as long as the necessary personal vitamins and minerals are planted in the remaining 1/4.
START PLANT ROTATIONS BASED ON SOIL CONDITIONS
Based on the deficiencies in the soil, grow crops that will replace the missing nutrients. If the lot is to remain vacant, stop on this step COLLARD GREENS FIELD PEAS CORN
COMPANION PLANTING Companion planting has morphed into crop rotation over the years. But by going back to the original way of companion planting, we can simultaneously take and give back to the soil. This is done by planting a combination of heavy feeders (plants that take a lot of nutrients from the soil, mostly nitrogen), heavy givers (plants that return nitrogen to the soil, and, if doing a three-crop companion planting, planting light feeders (all root crops) which give the soil a rest and like low-nitrogen soils. TWO-CROP COMPANION PLANTING
TRADITIONAL VS. BIOINTENSIVE GARDENING Through healthy soil and good bed preparation, it’s possible to achieve up to 4x the productivity per unit of area
THREE-CROP COMPANION PLANTING
BARLEY WHEAT
ANIMALS Cows, Chickens, Turkeys, Sheep
START REPOPULATING LOTS + CONTINUE GROWING Beets - 4” growth diam. Corn - 15” growth diam.
Beets - 4” growth diam. Bush Beans - 6” growth
If the block is only partially vacant, start on this phase, begin by implementing garden plots on the vacant lots. Populated housing can follow.
Corn - 15” growth diam.
FULL BUILD-OUT OF GARDEN COMMUNITY
This is the final output if the existing conditions are fully populated or if the end goal is a re-populated block. All houses will have an integrated garden system.
Detroit Dehesa Dehesas are typically defined as multi-functional agro-sylvo-pastoral systems (a type of agro-forestry) and cultural landscape of Southern and Central Spain. They may be private or communal properties (usually they are owned by the municipality). Used primarily for grazing, they produce a variety of products including wild game, mushrooms, honey, cork, and firewood. In other words, they are “an ideal marriage of wild terrain and controlled design (Barber, 104).” The Dehesa systems usually happen in the landscapes that could be defined as transitional or marginal because of both their limited agriculture potential due to poor soil quality and the lack of local industry. Not only are Dehesas economically imperative, and culturally vital, they provide a unique and valued aesthetic quality to the Spanish landscape.
TREE LAYER White Oak Swamp White Oak Chestnut Oak Bur Oak Red Oak
CROP LAYER 9% of Dehesa Oats Barley Wheat Rye
LIVESTOCK LAYER
The trees are harvested on rotating schedules and replenished on a perfected schedule over many years. It is a cultivated ecological agriculture but a ecology all the same. For example, the pigs hunt for acorns, mixing the acorn diet with grass along the way, then come the cattle behind them, eating the grass left behind by the pigs. Finally, the sheep eat the grass left behind by both parties, having easier access to the shorter grasses left behind by the cattle.
Pigs Goats Sheep Cattle Chickens Turkeys
Because a Dehesa has the ability to function as a complete ecosystem as well as provide food and industry to the local community, it seemed like the perfect application to Detroit’s Innovation Ecological district. With ecological adjustments, taking in consideration of the vastly different climates of the Mediterranean and Detroit, the Dehesa landscape can evolve to fit within Detroit, creating not only grazing land, but a habitat for wildlife, an ecological restoration for the city, and a completely unique sense of place to add to Detroit’s allure.
WILDLIFE LAYER White Tailed Deer Wild Turkey Broadwinged Hawk Indiana Bat Red Fox Red Rufa Bird
GRASS LAYER Herbaceous Layer: Lolium Bromus Hordeum Legume Layer: Clover Medicagos Serradela Crucifers
DETROIT DEHESA
Corporate + Wellness Gardens
Herb Garden ADA Accessible Planters
Retrofitting a city with urban agriculture infrastructure is going to require designing creative solutions to how to reuse existing infrastructure to fit within the proposed system without detracting from the function and with adding aesthetic and productive value to the building. The great aspect of this is that since there are many aspects to a complete food system, there are many flexible opportunities that can be adapted to fit within the existing infrastructure of a city. WELLNESS GARDEN The District Center land use typology as proposed by the Detroit Future City Plan in this design study’s focus area is entirely the Henry Ford Hospital. A great opportunity within the function and needs of the hospital arose, initiating the design of a wellness garden for the hospital’s roof. Studies have shown that gardens and growing have positive effects on recovery times and healing. This wellness garden would be the perfect amenity to add to the hospital. Though it’s urban agriculture production output will be minimal at best, it’s the social aspect of having those who are in recovery be able to go out and work with the plants and ‘get their hands dirty.’ To accommodate this use, there are 36 raised planters on the roof that can be accessed in wheelchairs. There is also a herb garden for the same use. Other elements of the wellness garden are more aesthetic, to restore peace and healing to those who visit the garden. With views out to downtown Detroit, this truly is a valuable addition to the urban agriculture infrastructure.
Wellness Garden
50’
0’ 25’
100’
Connection to Railroad
CORPORATE GARDEN The corporate landscape is a common one throughout the city. These vast buildings have two design potentials in order to fit into the new order of urban agriculture. The first is to retrofit the roof to have a productive intensive green roof system on top of the building. The second option, which is the option shown in the enlargement, involves having a green roof to filter and clean water for irrigating the productive garden on the ground. Aesthetic as well as productive, the garden will also have an adjacent café where the fresh produce can be cooked for the employees. If the company does not wish to internalize the products of the garden, they can be sold for profit. Selling the crops, in the case of this particular corporate landscape, would be incentivized by the adjacent railway, which is the way fresh produce is being distributed throughout the city.
Privacy Fence
Eating + Celebration
Agriculture
Rain Event
Angled Planters
Rainwater is captured and filtered by greenroof system
Farm to Table Cafe
Green Roof Irrigation
Filtered water is then retained in cistern
50’
0’ 25’
100’
The irrigation needs of the crops are then met by captured stormwater
PRECEDENT IMAGES
Images from (left to right): 1 - 4: Washington Mutual Green Roof; 5. Chicago Botanic Garden 6. Ability Garden at the New Hanover County Arboretum 7. Physic Garden at Novartis Campus, Basel, Switzerland; 8. ASLA Headquarter Greenroof; 9. Phipps Center for Sustainable Landscapes; 10. Urban Harvest Food Roof, St. Louis ; 11. Brooklyn Grange; 12. Brooklyn Grange
Rainwater is captured and filtered by a two- tiered greenroof system
Filtered Rainwater is then used to irrigate the crop production green roof
Stormwater Run-off goes into bio-swale
FORUM USE OF STORMWATER The Forum, besides being the social and economic center of the community, also has productive, as well as ecological value. Stormwater, which in more typical systems would just be run off, is recycled in every way possible on site. Water collected on rooftops filters through a double tier of green roof systems before being used as irrigation for the productive greenroof. Run-off from the street drains into the bioswale next to the boardwalk, where it is filtered, stored, and then used for irrigation for the park and the demonstration productive landscape.
Filtered water is then used to irrigate the park and the crops
Forum
Market Buildings
The Forum is the nucleus of the Detroit Future City Plan 50 Year Land Use “Neighborhood Center,” as well as an anchor for the Rosa Parks (or comparable) community and a hub for the community’s food system. Inspired by the Roman Forum, this Forum is a place to see and be seen. It is a marketplace for food, a place to shop for other wares, a place to eat and to celebrate. It has space for public spectacles, space for passive and active recreation. The design of this space has bold strokes, with iconic red steel beams creating an arcade space around the square. This covers a shared tabletop roadway, where pedestrians, vehicles and bicyclists all share the same space. The Great Lawn is the perfect space for outdoor concerts or movies or rallies. There are also smaller lawns and open spaces, for a more intimate setting and passive enjoyment. About 1/3 of the green space is used for agriculture production, in a more demonstrative setting, though the yields are still valuable contributions to the overall food system. A bio-swale runs adjacent to the pathway, filtering water that can be used to irrigate the park and the agriculture plot. Finally, all of the surrounding buildings have some type of green roof installation, whether it be productive or not.
Agriculture + Boardwalks
Bio-swale for irrigation
Market Arcade
Great Lawn Tabletop Shared Road
Green Roof
0’
75’
150’
Mob Grazing Mob grazing “is an intensive rotational grazing system, which is based on the idea of grazing a large amount of cattle on a small amount of land, for a very short period of time. Advocates say the system reflects nature, where wild animals arrive in herds, eat and move on, much like bison or wilderbeast (Price, 2013, 1).”
Food Conservatory + Roof Deck
Mob Grazing Demonstration
The demonstration and research system outside of the food conservatory is based on the same concept of mob grazing. It will be used to research the positive impact it can have and to produce more information on the beneficial yields this type of system can produce. The system starts with grazing 300 cows on a quarter of an acre, then shift them to the next quarter of an acre the next day. This partial grazing allows the remaining grass to feed the root system. This instigates the pasture to grow back quicker and stronger. After three days of grass growth, chickens are moved into the field. They scratch the fertilizer left behind by the cows into the ground, effectively spreading it through the field. They also eat bugs and parasites that have hatched from the cow manure. After the chickens, come the broilers and the turkeys, respectively. Mob grazing supports four times as many cattle as on a conventional farm. It requires no inputs, like chemical fertilizer or seed. Instead, the required nutrients come from “composting, controlled grazing and the symbiotic relationship between species (Price, 2013, 2).”
Access to Docks/Cafe Seating
100’
0’ 50’
Conservatory
The conservatory aspect of this proposed urban agriculture infrastructure meets several needs of the surrounding community. The most obvious, perhaps, is that by functioning essentially as a giant greenhouse, the conservatory can provide food year-round, since Detroit’s climate is not conducive to year-round food production. Another aspect, however, has the potential for longer-lasting effects. The conservatory becomes a place of education and of awe. It can teach visitors about the agriculture system, about plants and food, as well as provide an incredible and aesthetically beautiful place to visit. It can attract tourists as well as locals.
200’
Keeping the potential of the conservatory in mind, the design emphasis was a combination of education and production. Just outside of the building is a demonstration and research landscape studying the effects and high yields of mob grazing – which is said to be highly beneficial and highly productive. The conservatory itself will ideally be a retrofitted industrial building. The roof will also be a productive, and research oriented, landscape. There is a farm-to-table café with outdoor seating and room for events. Finally, adjacency to the railway provides the opportunity to sell the produce and have it distributed all over the city.
Food Conservatory
Cafe Kitchen
Eating + Celebration
Big Impact, Old Infrastructure One of the great things about designing in specific places is the ability to make design moves that enhance the sense of place and hearken to local history. The implementation of the railroads and the adaptive re-use of Michigan Central Station is taking advantage of this opportunity presented by Detroit. Michigan Central Station, along with other abandoned railway infrastructures, can be reused as a food hub for the entire city. With access to the railroad, these hubs can distributed all over the city, either providing more produce and
other wares to existing grocery stores or serving as pop-up grocery stores themselves. The diagram below shows the impact this can have on the city. The light green circles show existing grocery stores, with a ½ mile walking radius around them. The pink circles show the food hubs, whether they be grocery stores or other hubs, that have 2 mi, 1 mi, and ½ mile walking radiuses around them. With the addition of these food hubs, nearly everyone in the city is within a 20
minute walk to the nearest grocery store, most of which are selling fresh, local produce. The areas not covered on the map are areas that are set aside for Innovation Ecological use or Innovation Productive use. These hubs can distributed all over the city, either providing more produce and other wares to existing grocery stores or serving as pop-up grocery stores themselves.
Food Center Taking advantage of existing abandoned infrastructure adjacent to railroad systems, this building has been repurposed to be a food center for the immediate community. It functions as a grocery store-turnedfarmers-market, providing local, fresh produce to the community. Its adjacency to the railroad will serve as its connection to Michigan Central Station and other means of growing local food so that the food can be distributed through the city. Also in the food center are opportunities to eat and learn how to cook the fresh produce that is being sold.
EASTERN MARKET
Michigan Central Station This abandoned architectural gem is positioned perfectly poised on railroad tracks to make a giant impact on Detroit. Becoming Eastern Market’s Western twin, it will be a major food hub. The emphasis will be on transforming the abandoned shell into a massive vertical food garden. The fresh produce will then be shipped to food centers all over the city, providing neighborhoods with new sources of local, fresh, affordable food. It will also be a place of research, of innovation, of education. A place where a food revolution can be jump-started.
Food For the Whole City
Final Statistics Based upon the design implementations in the Rosa Parks community, these are the final numbers. If the average person eats 3-5 lbs of food a day, that is an average of 1,825 lbs of food a year. Based off of the population of Detroit, the food needs of the entire city are 1,256,879,325 lbs of food. After applying the averages per acre based on the designed typologies and estimates outcomes, the total city potential for urban agriculture is 2,565,654,917 lbs of food. That is 200% more than the need of the city.* *This is an estimation. Other methods of calculation showed 749,873,965 lbs of food, which meets 60% of the city’s food needs.
CITY CENTER
DISTRICT CENTER
810 acres - 1% of Detroit 8,833,000 lbs of food
21,135 acres - 2.5% of Detroit 14,613,343 lbs of food
NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER 561 acres - 1% of Detroit 3,135,430 lbs of food
LIVE + MAKE 2,134 acres - 2.5% of Detroit 10,564,686 lbs of food
INNOVATION ECOLOGICAL 12,366 acres - 14% of Detroit 766,692 lbs of food* *Dehesa has other products besides food
Residential (all) 49,071 - 55% of Detroit 2,437,565,291 lbs of food
INDUSTRIAL 11,950 acres - 13.4% of Detroit 100,730,597 lbs of food
INNOVATION PRODUCTIVE 4,534 acres - 5% of Detroit 36,701,340 lbs of food