Master Thesis: 'Productive Enclaves - Resilient neighborhoods in Chicago'

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Productive Enclaves RESILIENT NEIGHBORHOODS IN

Chicago.

A Master Dissertation project by Nicolas Ronchetti KULeuven, Faculty of Architecture, 2019

This booklet represents the result of research and analysis which was conducted to build up my project, with an elaboration on the achitectural intervention itself. It explores contemporary urban problems and attempts to propose solutions by developing new urban forms. This project and publication were strictly supervised and guided by Martine de Maeseneer.

This project was developed for my Master Dissertation, within the studio lead and proposed by Martine de Maeseneer. Š2019 - Nicolas Ronchetti ronchettinic@gmail.com Master of Science in Architecture KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture Campus Sint-Lucas, Brussels www.arch.kuleuven.be www.internationalmasterofarchitecture.be

Enclave - [ˈeŋ.kleɪv] - noun 1. an area that is different from the larger area or country surrounding it 2. a group of people who are different from the people living in the surrounding area

To the ones that mattered these past five years. Thank you.

Table of contents Abstract

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01 Research

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Chicago’s dualism

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Transport infrastructure interference

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Armour Square

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02 Intervention

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Design tools

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Productive enclaves

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Vertical farm

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Bibliography

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Singapore pavilion, 2018

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Abstract

Spaces IN BETWEEN Spaces What defines a space? Who uses said space? Spaces are often categorized as public, private, collective... Questions start arising if there still is such a thing as Freespace, a topic broadly researched through the Singapore pavilion at the 2019 Venice Architecture Bienalle.It tells the story of how, in spite of the lack of free space, Singapore-based architects, urban planners and place-makers have creatively found ways to bring delightful free spaces to the city’s everyday life. The Pavilion’s centrepiece features an immersive installation, an ethereal cloud made of skillfully handcrafted acrylic knots gently suspended in the vast spaces of the Sale d’Armi. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the spaces within the cloud and enjoy the multi-sensorial installation – in itself an example of a resourceful, unexpected free space. But what about the unseen spaces? The spaces found in between the spaces we always talk about. The often informal, empty places, absent of architecuture. This notion, this idea we find in between spaces, the spaces in between, represent exciting opportunities. References can be found in modern literature and nature, where infrastructure eventually starts serving multiple purposes. Beavers, for example, build dams in which other fauna and flora find places to thrive. The humid spaces created by beaver dams are often breeding sites for Anatidae and several amphibian species. Additionally these environments provide easy prey for bird species like the kingfisher. Insectivorous and cavernous birds can also benefit from the abundance of dead wood resulting from parts of the dam being under water. These spaces inside the dams are not known to most of us but have big impacts on the whole ecosystem.

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The city of Chicago contains a great deal of heavy infrastructure which inevitably creates these kinds of unused ‘in between’ spaces. With the projection that 70% of the population will live in urban areas by 2050, these ‘lost’ spaces can greatly benefit the public and increase resilience in communities. Chicago has always been an instigator of ideas and a generator of opportunities for speculation and is uniquely capable of inspiring and fostering moments of productive interaction, wild provocation, of radical speculation and fruitful exchange. The city must be seen within an international discourse about the industrial and later post-industrial city and the architecture apporpriate for it. A growing population means more urban challenges for which solutions have to be found and this is no different for Chicago. In this project I take a closer look at these ‘in between’ spaces in Chicago and make an attempt to develop performative architecture by engaging the city’s history as well as its urban context in general. Not by simply offering a programmatic complexity, in which architecture is reduced to a service industry, but by seeing that the true power of architecture lies in its potential. The ambition of this project is to create new urban forms instead of being an antidote.

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Beaver dam

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Herwig Scherabon - Income inequality, Chicago

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01 RESEARCH Chicago’s dualism A divided city - An introduction Chicago, Illinois is a city in North America with 2,7 million inhabitants. The city has a rich history and was considered to be the centerpoint between the east and west parts of the country in the 19th and early 20th century. It lays adjacent to Lake Michigan and was famous for its prosperous industrial activities, including grain, timber and last but not least the meat packing industry. With the introduction of its extensive railway system, Chicago was one of America’s most successful cities. This continued in the 20th century and the city saw its population growing to over 3,6 million inhabitants. One could describe Chicago as an urban jungle at that time. People moved to the city, into the unknown, to compete with others in capitalist ventures. The idea of an American metropolis seemed to merge progress with barbarism and other tremendous effects of capitalism. The many opportunities provided by the booming industry in the North lead to the Great migration, a long-term movement of African Americans from the South to the urban North between 1916 and 1960. Before this migration, African Americans constituted 2 percent of Chicago’s population; by 1970 they were 33 percent. The city became a hub for immigrants during the 20th century through its rail connections and availability of low wage industrial jobs, which are now dissapearing. In the 1950’s and 1960’s a big part of the white population fled the city and moved to the suburbs in a phenomenon known as White Flight. This lead some inner Chicago neighborhoods to be predominantly African American which is still the case to this day.

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African Americans were mostly restricted to an area called the Black Belt, on Chicago’s South Side, and this area witnessed increasing overcrowding and generally poor housing conditions for black families. On top of this, lots of property owners practiced a form of real-estate racism called redlining, leading to inequity in housing and a general disinvestment in community and public services. This racial wealth divide is still present in Chicago today. People of color in Chicago struggle more than their peers nationwide: - Black unemployment is 7% higher and the poverty rate is higher. - The percentage of cost burdened people is much higher for people of color. This means they are at high risk of foreclosure or homelessness if their income goes down. -The percentage of households with zero net worth is highest for African Americans. This growing inequality has manifested itself through gentrification and continued concentrated poverty in communities of color, with great implications on access to healthcare, financial services and education. This results in high crime rates, youth homelessness and unemployment. An inclusive approach is needed that addresses the disparities as well as the root causes. The following maps show how Chicago is basically divided in 2 parts: the richer, mostly white north and the poorer, colored south.

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Access to jobs

Poverty rate

Crime rates

Lack of healthcare

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Educational attainment

White population percentage < 10%

Racial and ethnic distribution

Median incomes

A strong sense of community Towards healthier, more resilient neighborhoods There is a clear divide between the northern and southern/western parts of Chicago. One could suggest to tackle this problem by connecting both parts of the city by the addition of trails, by improving integration of people of color in ‘better’ neighborhoods, by promoting creative and social hubs as central meeting points... This might work on a certain scale, but I believe this approach won’t solve the root of the problem. In order for a community or neighborhood to be vibrant, productive and resilient, it needs access to resources and services. Merely making both parts of the city meet halfway or sharing the access the ‘better’ neighborhoods have won’t cut it. This is why I narrowed my research down to the core problems communities experience. It means bringing innovative architecture to underserved communities, developing a project which answers to the needs of communities. Healthier neighborhoods can be attained by socially productive landscapes, which can be done through arts, culture, urban farming, mobile food services... The key step in this process is looking at access. Access -[ækses] - noun 1. the method or way of approaching a place or person, or the right to use or look at something 2. access to something can also mean the opportunity or ability to use it In this context, access refers to the ability for people to meet their needs - effectively, affordably and comfortably- and to thrive in urban contexts. It is defined by a range of metrics such as healthcare, education, mobility and food security. Access in the city of Chicago is analyzed through the following maps. 15|

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Food access - Food deserts Access to food can be understood as the ability of an individual to reach a retail point where high quality nutritious food, and not just high calorie food, can be purchased. The ability to access these points is determined by one’s proximity, the availability of transportation choices and one’s income. Food deserts are areas within which a significant number of people are isolated from accessing high-quality food options. The data from the USDA presents areas of low-income in addition to areas where a supermarket is greater than half a mile and greater than one mile away. “Some people and places, especially those with low-income, may face greater barriers in accessing healthy and affordable food retailers, which may negatively affect diet and food securtiy.” - ers.usda.gov The condition of being food insecure is not necessarily a constant, rather it may reflect a household’s need to make trade-offs between imortant basic needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate food. Next to grocery stores, farmer’s markets, food carts and increasingly, urban farming start playing a role in the city’s food access landscape.

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Mobility access - Transit deserts “A transit desert is an area that has a high demand for transit but lacks access to high-quality transit, meaning that it is more than half a mile from a rail transit stop and a quarter mile from high quality bus service. High quality transit can be rail, bus rapid transit (BRT), arterial rapid transit (ART), or bus routes with requent service (average headways of 15 minutes or less). Approximately 430.000 Cook County residents live in transit deserts and they face restricted mobility and limited access to all of the region’s jobs and amenities.� Vehicle ownership is one of the variables now commonly included as a measure of disadvantage or material deprivation in households that do not own a car. Increasingly howerver, car ownership in some metropolitan areas is becoming a matter of choice, especially when high quality transit or other options such as car share are available. While the city of Chicago has an extensive transit system, this sytem is highly fragmented and poorly integrated - administratively, spatially and operationally - leading to constrained ridership and inconsistent service. The city is seeing different forms of alternatives come up. The Divvy bicycle sharing system launched in Chicago in 2013. Car sharing is now a service being offered by serveral rental car companies, and peer-to peer ride and car sharing services are being enabled by communications technologies and smarthphone apps that allow for flexible and convenient exchanges.

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Education access - School tier system The Chicago Public School (CPS) Tier System is an indicator of the socio-economic factors that lead to relative advantage or disadvantage regarding education opportunity and attainment at the city scale. This includes factors such as median family incomes, percentage of households occupied by the owner, percentage of families headed by a single parent, percentage of households where a language other than English is spoken.... Shown on the map are Tier 1 and Tier 2 school zones, areas where school aged children face higher educational challenges based on above-mentioned factors. This more often than not leads to increased poverty rates, crime and even homelessness. In some parts of the city other urban factors play a part in influencing access to learning opportunities. Safe School Zones enforce speed limits and Safe Passage Zones mitigate violence, often gang related, on city streets that children need to use to get to schools.

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Health access - Medically underserved areas Medically underserved areas are designated based on the Index of Medical Underservice (IMU). The IMU uses a scale from 0 to 100, with 0 being completely underserviced and 100 being the least underserviced. Within this established system, those areas which are found to have a IMU rating of less than 62.0 qualify to be designated as a medically underserved area. The variables taken into account are: ratio of primary medical care physicians per 1000 population, infant morality rate, percentage of the population with incomes below the poverty level and percentage of the population age 65 or over. There are three primary ways to approach the question of health at the urban scale.

1. The physical distribution and accessibility of healthcare services 2. Through design of urban spaces and systems to support and encourage healthy lifestyles 3. The design of urban space that minimizes negative health impacts

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transport infrastructure And how its disruptive power affects the urban fabric Chicago is well known for its extensive (public) transportation system. This infrastructure is very much visible: from the famous L-train to the gigantic highway intersections. On the one hand, this kind of infrastructure was cheered on because it would primarily increase the accessibility and mobility of urban dwellers. But on the other hand, it has physically become barriers that separate districts/neighborhoods. The physical configuration of Chicago’s existing mobility infrastructure produces fragmented urban zones, urban islands with little to no access to services, which can be addressed by redesign to improve urban connectivity and continuity on the ground. We are primarily talking about railways, elevated tracks and expressways crossing the city. The amount of railways has gradually increased in the 20th century; this makes sense because Chicago was the primary trade center between east and west and most of the railways converged here. The evolution of these railways can be found on the next few pages. In addition, the White Flight indirectly caused expressways to be built in Chicago. This suburban sprawl, this white Exodus, was incompatible within the context of Chicago’s established rail and street car infrastructure, resulting in highways crossing the city. An often overlooked part of this story is that these superhighways were used as environmental racism. Building expressways was a way of ‘clearing slum’ in downtown Chicago, further segregating the black and white communities. They connected the suburbs to the city, but went right through black communities, physically separating them from white neighborhoods, which can still be felt to this day. Expressways have cut off access to parks and decreased proximity for many.

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1910

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Present

railways and expressways Present

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In his 1909 plan of Chicago, Burnham also expressed the importance of highways. However, he envisioned a concentric plan of highways that circle the city as to not disturb the urban fabric. The transport infrastructure would thus remain outside the city, with boulevards and diagonal arteries connecting to the center. It’s safe to say things didn’t turn out as he planned.

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Highway flyovers - From transport to urban infrastructure The conflict between heavy infrastructure and the urban fabric has not been resolved yet. Access to basic services still gets denied. The time has come to rethink the position of infrastructure by developing strategies that might help integrate the infrastructure into the urban fabric, spatially and programmatically. Its role as mere connector could be shifted to new types of collective spaces, especially there where the prioritization of flows such as cars and traffic in general have lead to situations when infrastructure is imposed on the urban fabric in a quite violent and brutal way, often resulting in undesirable conditions for inhabitants. A question arises: are we still talking about ‘infra’-structure, or should we say ‘dominant’ structure? The efficiency of old infrastructure proved to be short term while the problem of integration with the city and nature remained. In this dissertation I take a closer look at this problematic and in particular the flyovers created by big expressways. These zones are places of friction and I am making an attempt at reprogramming and integrating this infrastructure in the hopes of creating new urban types, at the intersection between architecture, infrastructure and landscape.

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Urban strategy: filling in the interstitial spaces

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“The healthiest cities develop organically from the bottom up.” - Jane Jacobs Expressway flyovers often create visual and urban barriers in the city. Where they often mark the border of a community, they make it hard and unsafe to cross to the other side. People without vehicle have to find ways around them. Most of these flyover areas have impenetrable or unused spaces under and next to them, which are then basically lost spaces in the city fabric. This is where I refer to when talking about spaces in between, or ‘in between’ spaces. They are overlooked and yet, these interstitial spaces have the potential to be planned and designed to cater adjacent community needs and usage. Elevated highways generally have 6 kinds of impacts: 1. They are a symbol of progression 2. They represent a dominant structure in the urban fabric 3. They segregate communities, as a barrier would 4. They produce undefined spaces, often misused. Informal settling or places of crime 5. There is minimal natural lighting and poor ventilation underneath. 6. They generate negative / lost spaces What follows is a mapping of such flyover areas throughout Chicago which could be reconceptualized, where architecture could play an active and productive role in urban society.

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The exploded axonometry on the adjacent page shows where these flyover areas are located in relation to multiple themes, such as transit deserts, food deserts, medically underserved areas, the full infrastructure network, the urban fabric... Every one of these places can be redesigned into a new urban form according to the local needs of the community they are situated in. This layering of data is a way of representing this. It also shows the complexity, the hierarchy of Chicago, ranging from tertiary roads to heavy infrastructure. The lowest level shows Chicago’s dualism.

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Hyperarchaeology - Remembering Chicago’s first skyscrapers In the 19th century, Chicago was big on grain. The wheat exchange was an important part of the industry that made the city so successful at the time. As the railroads expanded, farmers were able to get their crops from the prairies to the marketplace more quickly and efficiently. More and more sacks of grain piled up in Chicago. This called for an architectural solution: the problem was no longer about form but how that form had been generated. The architecture, in this case the Grain Elevators, had to showcase the rules of its own production. All the loose grain could be mechanically transferred from railroad cars or boats to grain elevators, eliminating the need for laborers to load and unload sacks. The seller would walk off with a warehouse receipt, which he could trade, sell or use as currency in the marketplace. From the grain elevator, a buyer could have his grain transferred directly into a boat to be carried anywhere around the globe. By 1861, Chicago’s grain trade had increased to 50 million bushels annually —a rise of over 48 million bushels in a decade — supporting the city’s boast that it fed the world. These structures could reach up to 40m high and were basically the first skyscrapers in the industrial city of Chicago. They were scattered around the river and some of them remain vacant to this day. They are remnants of Chicago’s past.

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Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders: They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again. And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger. And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities; Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness, Bareheaded, Shoveling, Wrecking, Planning, Building, breaking, rebuilding, Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth, Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs, Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle, Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing! Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation. Chicago - Carl Sandburg

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This additional layer reinforces the idea of layering itself. In the exploded axonometric I have been layering elements of the urban fabric with socio-economic themes and this act of layering will eventually translate itself into a new kind of performative architecture: building under and over the highway flyovers. Remembering these bombastic structures justifies this process of ‘building up’. Underlying map shows the precise locations of where these grain elevators were situated, based off of a historical map. Some of the chosen flyover areas actually come quite close to these grain elevator footprints.

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Case study - Open Gym Leuven In the city of Leuven, Belgium, a group of youngsters used one such flyover area to create an Open Gym, accessible to all. This previously unused space is filled with workout equipment, a boxing ring, walls to climb, a bar ... They are mainly using recycled materials and are funded by the city of Leuven. The creators call it a DIY sports infrastructure and want to attract people who want to train outdoors and don’t feel like paying for a gym membership. The evenings are often filled with special activities, organized sports classes and instructors are never far away. To this day they are still expanding and the project is getting well known in the city. This type of programmation is also less affected by possible noise pullution caused by the highways. This is one of many examples of how flyover areas can be reconceptualized in order to include these lost spaces in the urban fabric. Other examples include: - Parks - Restaurants - Homes - Horse stables - Sports fields - Agriculture - Exhibition boots - Skate parks - Shelter / storage for the poor and homeless - ...

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Armour Square Location for prototype intervention for a flyover area

The flyover area I decided to fully develop as a new urban form is located in the Armour Square (AS) neighborhood. It borders the Chicago river and includes areas like Chinatown. It lies on the city’s South side. AS is physcially very narrow and lies in between two major transit infrastructures: the railways to the left and the I-90 Expressway to the right. This is a great example of how transport infrastructure seperates communities from one another. AS really feels like an urban island. The expressway passes over the area and forms multiple instances of flyovers, which will be the focus points of the project. Some socio-economic data:

Population 13,273

Median income $26,543

POVERTY RATE 25%

3,629 / 100k

73% Asian, 10% white, 10% black

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Unattractive bus stops

The only supermarket

Schools are scattered throughout Armour Square

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Armour Square lies in a food desert

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Armour square - Urban farming as a solution to food deserts Neighborhoods that identify as food deserts are largely situated on the South and West parts of Chicago. Food deserts generally refer to neighborhoods and communities that have limited access to nutritious and fresh foods. This is also the case in Armour square, where only one supermarket can be found, and it’s a Chinese supermarket. These are not known to sell fresh fruits and vegetables. There are also no farmer’s markets or food stands. Just opening up new grocery stores won’t solve the problem. People in these neighborhoods need to be educated on making smart food choices, on how to prepare healthy meals. These people also often feel like a minority when entering supermarkets and this holds them from actually going there. Food deserts carry great costs, they are an antithesis to progress. Other factors play a role ofcourse, such as poverty and transportation issues. The number of households in the USA experiencing some form of foodinsecurity was estimated at about 14.5% of the population in 2010. Food deserts often lead to an increase in health problems, e.g. obesity, which in turn cost a lot to the state. In addition, the majority of neighborhoods of color have a roughly equal access to fast food, which doesn’t help. Some initiatives exist which try to bring more healthy foods to AS and other communities. The Greater Chicago food depository for example actively tries to reduce food insecurity accross the city of Chicago. Their focus primarily lies on giving young children access to good foods which is crucial for a long term potential. Barriers such as poverty and violence limit the potential of too many Chicagoans. This is why they are creating a responsive, seamless distribution system which will help achieve the goal of getting the right foods to clients, when and where they need it. 51|

Another option to improve food securtiy is by doing urban agriculture. In addition to enhance food security, urban farming is a great way of bringing people together and letting them work on something of their own making, in a productive setting. Urban farming has environmental, health and social benefits. Raising fresh fruit, vegetables and some animal products near consumers greatly improves access to food, especially in underserved areas. Studies have often suggested that urban agriculture could help cities achieve self-sufficiency. And if not cities, then surely communities. The unused spaces generated by the flyovers in Armour Square are a great opportunity to start up urban farming and my prototype intervention in AS will revolve around this. Many of the most vulnerable people have little access to land and lack the skills needed to design and tend productive gardens or farms, and my goal is to tackle both of these problems by setting up a vertical urban farm and educating people how to actually tend to their plants. The first step in this type of endeavour is to raise public awareness of how urban farming can benefit modern cities, in terms of access to food but also in how it can bring people together. The goal is to make people realize that urban farms could supply almost the entire recommended consumption of vegetables for city dwellers, while cutting food waste and reducing emissions from the transportation of agricultural products. My architectural intervention strives to create a closed energy system, in which energy needed for the farm is supplied by solar, wind and water energy and in which food waste is reused or composted. Water is supplied by catching rainwater in a water tower.

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Urban agriculture should be sustainable and resilient. It reduces poverty, promotes social inclusion and answers some urban environment challenges such as the Urban Heat Island effect. There recently has been a disconnect between those who drive/organize urban farming and those who regulate / manage it. Engagement by the whole community is thus elementary, but professional coordination is still necessary. 5 good reasons for urban agriculture: 1. It bridges divides and brings people togther 2. It provides food and income for those who need it 3. Great reduction of fossil fuel, reducing the ecological footprint 4. Source of education and learning by farming. This overall increases the health of future food systems. 5. Fresh nutritious foods for deprived communities with resulting health benefits. 5 good reasons for the inclusion of marginalised social groups: 1. Increased equality 2. Production of an active civil society 3. Positive effects for all 4. Promotion of innovation, of progress 5. Economic growth: channeling unused human labour into economic production Urban agriculture is not just setting up a garden or farm. It’s a complete concept that must meet social needs, create social relationships and form new collaborations. It’s a process, not a project.

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02 intervention Design tools Chicago’s grid - A grid in motion The main actor in designing the flyover area was the famous Chicago grid, the orthogonal perfectly square grid which can be felt throughout the city. However, as Gandelsonas explored in his work X-Urbanism, the grid is what I call in motion. Anomalies happen, offsets are created. I based my grid studies on the following occurences:

Grid anomalies

Grid offsets

Land ordinance

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Chicago’s grid - Anomalies Chicago’s grid is known to be orthogonal, perpendicular. North to south, 90 degree angles. Back in the 20th century, urbanist Gandelsonas explored city grids and the strange things happening in their framework. In the same spirit I mapped all anomalies of Chicago’s grid: places where the grid does not follow the north to south rule, east to west configuration. As can be seen on the adjacent page, these anomalies most often happen along infrastructure and along the river. The most important takeaway is that the grid orientates itself perpendicular to these entities. Perpendicular to the highways, to the river... It’s as if the roads and river force the grid to change. The biggest anomaly in Chicago lies quite close to Armour Square. It consists of an entire block of houses, crossed by the railway. Perhaps this rotation makes access to infrastructure and river easier, perhaps it opens up views. In first instance I projected this anomaly on the area of interest in Armour Square. This is where some grid studies come in, as visible on the next few pages.

Gandelsonas, X-Urbanism

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Chicago’s grid - Offset

Another remarkable mutation of the grid happens along the river and its adjacent industry zones. The orthogonal grid seems to take a break, to stop before it reaches the river. The old industrial areas seem to act as a buffer zone, not allowing the grid to interact with the river. A similar approach could be adopted when projecting a grid onto the flyover areas. The grid could take back what it couldn’t get at the river and cross the flyover area boundaries. This can also be accomplished by rescaling the projected grid, or even rotating it, as is shown in the axonometric on page 59.

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Chicago’s grid - Land use Ordinance The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Land Ordinance of 1785 were designed to establish some order among western settlers. The Land Ordinance prescribed the division of the land into six-mile-square townships. By 1820, townships had been laid out in the southern part of Illinois, and a solid band of them (the Bounty Lands) lined the northwest side of the Illinois River, working up toward the site of Chicago. Each western township contained thirty-six square miles of land, planned as a square measuring six miles on each side, which was further subdivided into thirty six lots, each lot containing one square mile of land. The mathematical precision of the planning was the concerted effort of surveyors. Each township contained dedicated space for public education and other government uses, as five of the thirty six lots were reserved for government or public purposes. The thirty six lots of each township were numbered accordingly on each township’s survey. The centermost land of each township corresponded to lot numbers 15, 16, 21 and 22 on the township survey, with lot number 16 dedicated specifically to public education. As the Land Ordinance of 1785 stated: “There shall be reserved the lot No. 16, of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within the said township. The diagram on the adjacent page shows how the method of subdivision can be applied from the scale of the country down to the scale of a single lot, which is still the smallest plot found in Chicago today.

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Grid studies - Bringing it all together In defining the final grid to project on the area, I used the idea of the grid turning itself perpendicular to the infrastructure. The middle blue line represents the center line of the expressway which serves as the base line on which perpendicular gridlines depart. The interdistances between the perpendicular lines on this centerline correspond to the dimensions of the Land Ordinance plots. Following these rules I created my own grid anomaly. A focal point can be seen as the result of this anomaly. When projecting the grid on the map of the area, we see that this focal point corresponds with an empty parking lot, allowing for multiple structures to be built which would be connected on an intelligent level. This focal point is where a water tower could be constructed, linked to the vertical farm following the radial grid.

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An interesting byproduct of this grid is the pattern that’s created by all the converging lines. A pattern that looks like a twisted waffle with radial lines crossing through. Using this pattern enforces my idea of layering elements and themes found throughout the research and I decided to use this pattern to actually define the structure of the vertical farm. The grid makes it so that interesting spaces are created with different kinds of views and allow for an interesting programmation. As can be seen in the image beneath, the pattern was rescaled slightly and orientated in a way as to align with the square and streets.

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A first conceptual sketch showing how the flyover area could be connected to a water tower on the focal point created by the anomaly, which in turn would connect to other areas by following the grid radials.

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Steel, steel and more steel - Uncovered By the end of the 19th century, architects throughout Chicago were starting to use steel as primary structural material to build buildings. This is especially true throughout the 20th century, when modernist architects such as Mies van der Rohe started filling the city with skycrapers seemingly consisting of only steel frames and glass façades. Steel beams allowed for lightweight construction and at the same time created big open floor plans. These methods of construction contrast the previous method of having masonry walls supporting the entire building, which had a practical height limit of 10 stories. In a building using skeleton construction, a skeleton of steel beams holds up the floors, and the interior and exterior walls. The result is a much lighter building which can go many stories into the sky, compared to the pure brick buildings that were seen in the city before. An example of this is can be found on the adjacent page: the Wainwright building by Louis Sullivan. It shows the construction process of the building; a steel frame serving as the structural part of the building gets covered by a brick façade. He in essence covers up the steel, whereas later the steel frame would remain visible, as is the case with Mies van der Rohe. This steel frame is visually a sort of layering on its own and this part of Chicago’s architectural history is remembered by opting for a lightweight, steel structure for the vertical farm. The big difference is that the vertical farm doesn’t get covered up, expressing openness and negating the often heavy feeling you get in cities.

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Steel, steel and more steel - Chicago’s elevated railways Even though I, in a certain way, heavily critisize infrastructure in Chicago in this dissertation, one cannot not appreciate the elegance present in the multitude of elevated railways found in the city. These pass over roads and sidewalks, creating a second layer of transportation and varying in structure. As sketched on the adjacent page, they differ from light, trussed structures, to composite steel beamed, heavy railways which often need an extra counterpushing force, as seen in the last sketch. The elevated L-train is an iconic scene in Chicago and I heavily referenced them in designing the walkable aquaduct connecting the watertower to the vertical farm in the first conceptual urban strategy sketches.

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Productive enclaves Multiscalar approach - Neighborhood inlclusion This 90x90m flyover area is unused and unaccessible. It is my aim to develop this ‘enclave’ into a resilient and productive area which will benefit the whole community of Armour Square. I propose a multiscalar approach in different phases to gradually include bigger parts of the neighborhood. The flyover area would be included in a superblock configuartion which would make the whole area safer and more socially available to the inhabitants, an aspect I think is very important considering the amount of traffic and schools. Superblocks are a model of mobility that restructures the typical urban road network. Chicago is known for its cityblocks: in the superblock structure multiple cityblocks would form a superblock, in which pedestrians get full prioirty and motorized traffic is prohibited or at least slowed down drastically. The perimeter, or exterior, of superblocks is where motorized traffic circulates. Other example of urban superblocks can be found in Barcelona, Spain. The idea of introducing multiple phases, each with different scales, is to promote the concept of upscaling food production and job availability, while organically including the neighborhood. Going from small to larger scale interventions lets the community grow and adapt. More people will get access to green spaces, to knowledge, to food - Armour square will be become more socially and economically resilient.

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Superblocks concept

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Phase 1 - Small scale intervention Creating a cohesive neighborhood by intoducing green, living streets - streets with added green infrastructure, and urban farming through communal gardens.

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Phase 2 - Medium scale intervention Addition of infrastructure such as playgrounds and sports fields. Greenhouse structures interacting with flyovers: creating structures between the highway branches and over them, giving traffic a sense of what’s happening.

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Phase 3 - large scale intervention The large scale intervention expresses itself in a vertical farm. Building under, between and over the flyover in an attempt to maximize unutilized space and taking advantage of an already layered city.

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Vertical farm - Sustainability and resilience As was mentioned before, 70% of the world population will live in urban areas by 2050. This means that cities will need to produce food internally to respond to demand caused by increasing population and to avoid paralyzing congestion, harmful pollution, and unaffordable food prices. Urban agriculture is a proven solution to these problems by merging food production and consumption in one place. In addition to food production, urban agriculture also offers a wide range of other functions such as energy conservation, waste management, biodiversity, nutrient cycling, micorclimate control, urban greening, community socialization, human health, education... Urban agriculture integrates three main principles of sustainability:

1. Environmental health: it requires low input of water and low to no use of fertilizers and pesticides 2. Economic profitability: urban farming reduces transportation of shipping between producers and markets 3. Social wellness

There are different types of urban farming such as rooftop farming, whole building farming, wall structures and community gardens. This project is focused on vertical farming. Vertical farms have often been proposed as a solution for future cities to grow most of the food inside city limits in ultra-efficient greenhouses, regardless of location. Their biggest advantages are: year-round produce, lack of crop loss due to weather events, reduction of fossil fuels, less water use and job creation in urban centers. Well-designed greenhouses should use as little as 10% of the water and 5% of the area required by convetional farms.

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What is a vertical farm? In essence, it is a simple concept: farming up rather than out. This can happen by retrofitting existing buildings, with several levels of growing beds often lined with artificial lights, by rooftop farming or by designing a whole new building. The idea of farming vertically is not new and examples can be found as far back as the ancient times and in literature throughout the 20th century. The vertical farm is considered to promote sustainable agricultural practices more than that by conventional farming. Why vertical farming? The logic of vertical farming is simple: produce more food on less land. In a densifying urban world, vertical farming could enable food production in an efficient and sustainable manner, save water and energy, enhance the economy, reduce pollution, provide jobs and access to healthy foods. Since indoor farming operates year-round and is independent of weather conditions, it could also provide greater yields and perpetual income. Importantly, vertical farms could help in addressing the problem of farmland shortages. If our population continues growing, conventional farming would need much more land, land we can’t really spare. We would need to add to existing agricultural land an area as big as Brazil by 2050. A 30-story building with a basal area of 2.02 ha would be able to produce a crop yield equivalent to 971.2 ha of conventional horizontal farming. One high-rise farm would be equivalent to 480 conventional horizontal farms. That’s huge.

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Vertical farm - Program and zoning defined by grid anomaly The adjacent page shows how the phas 3 - large scale intervention, the vertical farm, was programmatically defined. The 90x90m square was extruded to a box, out of which the highway branches were cut out. The box is then replaced by the grid which is being layered on top of each other in order to fully interact with the highway. The grid radials define the vertical zoning: - 1 zone for educational purposes, where people get the opportunity to participate in workshops, both theoretical and practical in order to learn how to farm, make correct food choices etc. - The middle zone is for hydroponics - 1 zone for aquaponics. More information on these farming techniques can be found further on in the booklet. Next to this vertical zoning, a horizontal zoning defines the types of plants to be farmed. The ground floor is dedicated to a market where produce is sold off and to a processing center. Upper levels are divided into smaller leafy vegetables and vine plants. The upper level is dedicated to a classic greenhouse, which follows the grid. Using this pattern as blueprint for the farm allows for zoning and for interesting spatial instances by introducing voids and empty levels.

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Vertical farm - structural axonometry |94

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+0 Market place and processing center, Sports/leisure area and aquaponics fish ponds |100

+1 Educational area and aquaponics 101|

+2 Eudcational area and aquaponics

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+3 Roof terrace and hydroponics

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+6 Greenhouse

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ETFE Facade - High performing soft facades Facade systems are to a great extent responsible for both the energy performance and overall aesthetic qualities of a building. In the case of a vertical farm, energy requirements are very important. Temperature needs to be constant, lighting must be carefully regulated to imitate natural conditions or to achieve year-round production. This means the facade of a vertical farm should have outstanding thermal qualities and the admission of natural light has to be regulated. ETFE cushions present an interesting solution in this regard. ETFE cushions can be most simply described as two thin sheets of a very strong and clear polymer, welded at their perimeters such that the space between the two sheets can be filled with air. This technology has been largely used by architects since the 1980s as an alternative to glass because of their similar transparency, higher thermal isolation properties and energy and cost-efficient assembly by production processes. The cushions are usually inflated at 250-400 Pa with a small pump and topped up intermittently. The energy required for its production is over ten times less per square meter of coverage than that of glass and ETFE facades provide greater luminosity: the cushions allow an equal range of light frequency transmission and greater total visible light transmission. They have, however, a high degree of sound transmittance which would pose problems for inhabitable spaces, but since we are dealing with vertical farming, this can be disregarded.

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ETFE facades as smart windows Electrochromic windows, also called ‘smart windows’, change their optical properties in a reversible manner when voltage is applied and current flows through them. Most of the smart windows rely on a thin layer of electrochromic material, generally composed of the oxides of certain metals. The change of opacity is given by applyiing a small electric charche (5,0 Volts) that reverses the shutting of charge ions between the electrochromic thin film and a transparent conductor. Recent advances in technology regarding ETFE facades have made it possible to turn them into smart windows. We would then, in essence, be able to change the amount of natural light being admitted into the vertical farm. This could come in handy since we are dealing with different kinds of spaces: educational zones which would benefit more natural light and farming areas where we could block sunlight coming in but allow artificial light to shine out, and in doing so create a beacon in the community. ETFE skin facades are thus very sustainable solutions to glass facades, especially in relation to urban farming. The properties of such facades are monitored and can be altered depending on the needs of the building.

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ReGen villages, EFFEKT Architects

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The vertical farm - Farming methods There are different methods and technologies available in terms of indoor vertical farming. The main ones are 1. Hydroponics 2. Aeroponics 3. Aquaponics These systems and associated technologies are rapidly evolving, diversifying and improving. 1. Hydroponics Hydroponics is a method of growing food using mineral nutrient solutions in water without soil. Using this method reduces soil-related cultivation problems and it is relatively low-maintenance. The hydroponic method often results in more uniform and better yields, as the optimum combination of nutrients can be provided to all plants. 2. Aeroponics Aeroponics goes one step further than hydroponics. The major difference is that hydroponics uses water as a medium while aeroponics has no growing medium. It uses mist or nutrient solutions instead of water, so it does not require containers or trays to hold water.

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3. Aquaponics Aquaponics is a bio-system that integrates recirculated aquaculture (fish farming) with hydroponic vegetable, flower, and herb production to create symbiotic relationships between the plants and the fish. It achieves this symbiosis through using the nutrient-rich waste from fish tanks to ‘fertigate’ hydroponic production beds. Freshly cleansed water is then recirculated back into the fish tanks. Aquaponics is preferable to hydroponics. However, auaponics systems continue to be at the experimental stage because the technology is relatively complex. An aquaponics system also takes a while to reach full harvest capacity, and is generally 30-50% more expensive. It does, however, use less water and the element of caring for actual animals is charming and often loved by locals.

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The vertical farm - A closed loop system One of the arguments against vertical farms is the high amount of energy they require. This is mainly due to all the artificial lighting needed for the plants to grow year-round, as well as the heating systems and the HVAC systems to ventilate the farm. Vertical farming is often considered to be the future of farming, especially considering the amount of people we will have to feed in the future, which is feasible because it’s high-tech but comes at a higher cost. A soltuion to this is to aim towards a closed loop energy system, in which we try to generate as much of the energy as we need ourselves through renewable energy sources, in which we minimize waste by composting and recycling it (for example using the produce waste as food for aquaponics fish) and in which we get the water required for farming through rainwater harvesting and/or waste water management. This section will discuss the different elements in this closed loop system: water, wind energy, piezo crystals, solar energy.

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1. Wind energy A first source of renewable energy which we can put to use is wind energy. This can be done by adding windturbines on the roof of the vertical farm. Being higher up means they can catch more wind and thus create more electrical energy. 2. Solar energy Next to the typical solar panels which can practically be put anywhere enough sunlight comes, photovoltaic cells can also be incorporated into the ETFE skin facade. We can then start to adjust the pressure in the ETFE cushions, which will change the configuration of the material inside; the cushions can become little solar cells of their own. 3. Piezoelectricity Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials, such as Piezo crystals, in response to applied mechanical stress. This mechanism can be used to harvest energy from the highway flyovers itself: cars passing over the road create mechanical energy. Piezo crystals could transform this energy into electrical energy. The higher the vehicle weight and the slower cars go, the more energy can be generated. The amount of energy which can be obtained through this method is not high, but the possibility is there. 4. Water Water can be harvested from rainwater, for example by constructing a water tower inside the farm or on the earlier mentioned focal point of the anomaly. We can also clean and reuse the waste water from the vertical farm.

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Bibliography Smith, C. (2005). The Plan of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org Semuels, A. (2018, March 28). Chicago’s Awful Divide. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com Reiff, L.J. Manufacturing Climate in the 1880s. Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org Tomasz. (2017, Sep 8). How Chicago built its ‘Superhighways’. Retrieved from https://medium.com Whiting, S. (2015, April 10). The Chicago Elastic Grid. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com Velikov, K., Thün, G. (2014). Protean Prototypes. Retrieved from http://www.rvtr.com Chicago botanic garden. Urban agriculture. Retrieved from https://www.chicagobotanic.org Kohlstedt, K. (2017, March 27). Agricultural Futures: From home aeroponic gardens to Vertical Urban Farms. Retrieved from https://99percentinvisible.org Effekt (2016). ReGen Villages. Retrieved from https://www.effekt.dk Risen, C. (2017, July 11). Award: Dynamic ETFE Façade. Retrieved from https://www.architectmagazine.com

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Hazel, T. Field Foundation Chicago Heat Maps [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://fieldfoundation.org/about/resources/ Racial Wealth Divide Initiative. Racial Wealth Divide in Chicago [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://prosperitynow.org/files/PDFs/profiles/Racial_Wealth_Divide_in_Chicago_RWDI.pdf Illinois Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights. (2011, October) Food Deserts in Chicago [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/docs/IL-FoodDeserts-2011.pdf Illinois Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights. (2011, October). Food Deserts in Chicago [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/docs/IL-FoodDeserts-2011.pdf Gandelsonas, M. (1999). X-Urbanism: Architecture and the American City. Princeton Architectural Eisenschmidt, A. (2013). Chicagoisms: the city as catalyst for architectural speculation. Park Books, Zürich Popadiuk, R. From Transport Infrastructure to Urban Infrastructure. Faculty of Architecture TU Delft Utaberta, N., Mydin, O.A.M. (2015, January). Improvise overpasses: Study on utilizing spaces below flyover [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net Kalantari, F. (2017, October). A Review of Vertical Farming Technology: A Guide for Implementation of Building Integrated Agriculture in Cities [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net Krishnan, S. (2016, February). Sustainable Urban Agriculture: A Growing Solution to Urban Food Deserts [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net Cardoso, D. (2019) Soft Façade: Steps into the definition of a responsive ETFE Façade for High-rise Buildings[PDF file]. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net 123|

Productive Enclaves Nicolas Ronchetti

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