the drawdown city A Collective Pursuit of Climate Change Mitigation
Shimali Burah
The Aberdeen Fingers
The Drawdown City - A Collective Pursuit of Climate Change Mitigation Š 2018 Shimali Burah. All rights reserved. A thesis submitted to the faculty of Architecture at the University of Dundee, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture. Word Count: 5430 The Rooms + Cities Studio Team Tutors
K. Gollifer L. Holm
A. Shiran A. Stoane
B. Wang
the drawdown city A Collective Pursuit of Climate Change Mitigation
by shimali burah
abstract.
H
umans have crippled the planet to the extent that the chances of survival for future generations is threatened. If action is not immediately taken to halt global climate change, we may never be able to reverse the subsequent damage. Populations are growing at an exponential rate and cities are rapidly expanding to accommodate them through urban sprawl, spiking the volume of contaminants in the atmosphere to dangerous levels. This proposal therefore serves as a polemic for reorganising cities, advocating for a society that both exists in continual proximity to greenspace and that is more environmentally aware. It outlines a model for urban growth that curbs climate change by tackling a specific issue that is overlooked in the field of architecture: food waste. The practice of architecture tends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by promoting alternative, building-specific solutions such as green roofs and net-zero designs. However, assuming that electricity and heat production are considered separate industries, the emissions of the construction industry are some of the least impactful in the greater fight against climate change. In fact, statistics show that one of the top contributors to harmful global emissions is food waste. Despite the extent of this issue, however, projections show that cities need to become centres of food production with substantial increases in current food supplies in order to provide for their growing urban populations. Cities therefore need to be planned in a way that accommodates this necessary increase in food production whilst simultaneously closing the farm-to-fork distance.
Given these issues of climate change, urban sprawl and wasteful food production systems, how can we use architecture to pursue a collective agenda of climate change mitigation? We propose an architectural manifesto in the form of a Contract of Environmental Reciprocity: a system of controlled city growth that combats unchecked urban sprawl while simultaneously returning large portions of the city to nature. Using Aberdeen City as a template for investigation, the Contract propositions that for every new development to the city, a similarsized portion of urban fabric is returned to greenspace as either public parkland or as farmland. The enforcement of the Contract along Aberdeen’s major roads forces the city to take the form of linear densities that are always immediately adjacent to nature, regardless of how large the city grows. The individual thesis component that was developed in parallel with this group manifesto explored the design of a Drawdown City: a high-density city grid typology that reduced the volume of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by incorporating themes of self-sufficiency and urban farming. By encouraging city-dwellers to access local farming harvests, it is hypothesized that a much more consequential proportion of greenhouse emissions can be targeted for systematic reduction. The final proposal is therefore presented as a montage of the architecture of Manhattan and Amsterdam, each representing a variation of high-density occupation within cities, bordered by urban farmland and superimposed as a speculative future for the city of Aberdeen.
contents.
abstract
01 chapter 01
the issues
climate change
urban sprawl the (wasteful) food production line polemical architecture: constructing a framework for advocacy 19 chapter 02
the proposal
the contract of environmental reciprocity: a manifesto the contract’s blueprint the contract in aberdeen 45 chapter 03
a reading
new aberdeen: a montage a typology for self-sufficiency a compacted food chain
the approach
69 conclusion 72 acknowledgements 73
list of references
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additional bibliography
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list of illustrations
chapter 01
the issues.
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chapter oi
“
We are the last generation that can put an end to climate change. 1
Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 2015
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the issues
climate change.
A
s a species, humans have caused the most harm to nature. We have drawn invisible lines on the earth’s face and claimed all living and dead that fell within those boundaries as our own, creating wars over what was never ours to begin with. In our pursuit of power, we discarded the remains of our collective genius and allowed the earth to erode as a result. We threw bottles into the ocean, flung plastic bags into the forest, and drove the
offcuts of our discoveries into the atmosphere. The consequences of our past carelessness now shows in the rising sea levels; the increasing spate of storms that batter our coastal cities; the extreme temperatures that have now become our norm. If current trends continue unchallenged and if solutions are not enacted now, we may not be able to scale back the already-significant damage that we have caused to our own ecosystems.
The United Nations. United Nations – Meetings Coverage and Press Releases. 28 May 2015. www.un.org/press/ en/2015/sgsm16800.doc.htm.
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However, without an obvious immediate benefit, change will simply not be implemented by the collective majority. It is a question of choice. For instance, we are aware of the terror caused by industrial animal agriculture: horrific living conditions, genetic manipulation, and rampant illness fought by a grotesque amount of antibiotics. We are perhaps less aware, but certainly not ignorant, of the environmental damage caused by intensive farming. The meat industry is not a necessary one for human survival. Instead of a widespread switch to vegetarianism however, the vast majority of the population collectively chooses to turn a blind eye to acute animal suffering and our dying planet in favour of the momentary pleasure gained from flesh on a plate. With this willingness to tune out the cries of another’s suffering, how can
society be expected to heed the quiet warnings of the earth’s demise? Climate change was discovered by science, but perhaps it will be solved by economics and design. Solutions to climate change have already been identified by the scientific community, but these are not implemented because of apparent costs to the contemporary consumer lifestyle, with no visible advantage except for the greater good. How can designers introduce climate change awareness as an ordinary part of daily life? The proposal attempts to address this through the illustration of a polemic that advocates for a new, unique relationship between nature and the built environment. It identifies that a major area of concern in climate change discourse is that of food waste, and uses architecture to introduce an alternative to our current culture of inaction.
the issues
ignorance is bliss
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urban sprawl.
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he concept of human civilization co-existing with nature is not new. The current relationship between them, however, is one-sided: where the built environment will flourish, the natural environment must suffer. Cities are built at the expense of natural ecosystems, while the earth reclaims only what society has left behind. With an accelerating population growth and an increasing trend in
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migration from rural to urban areas, there is an unprecedented need for accommodation within cities. This has resulted in the uncoordinated expansion of human populations away from urban centres, which in turn leads to inflated infrastructure costs, the removal of local wildlife, a loss of farmland, and an acute dependency on automobiles and their associated health hazards (air pollution, vehicular crashes, and pedestrian fatalities).2
Bhatta, Basudeb. Analysis of Urban Growth and Sprawl from Remote Sensing Data. Berlin: Springer, 2010
the issues
complexcity Artwork depicting a tangle of streets due to urban sprawl
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However, instead of examining the ways in which cities extinguish nature through urban sprawl, contemporary cities simply attempt to minimise their adverse effect on the environment by altering the way in which they use the earth’s resources. Although the beneficial aspects of a greenspace that is firmly embedded within the city is acknowledged by urban planners, it is not prevalent enough today; after World War I, policy makers were “more concerned with the provision of open space on a crowded suburban periphery”.3 However, having reviewed urban greenspaces within cities and their positive effects on city-dwellers, the World Health Organization recently recommended that every person should have access to at least two
hectares of greenspace within a 5-minute walk from their home.4 Most of today’s existing cities would not fit that criteria; we are surrounded by the grey concrete jungles of the metropolis. How can we then, literally and figuratively, bind the two aspects of the built and the natural environment into a single city form that does not sacrifice one in favour of the other? This project proposes a speculative strategy for cities to develop alongside nature, instead of through its repeated eradication; to curb urban sprawl through a system of demolition that returns the earth to a semblance of what it once was.
3 Clark, Peter, ed. The European City and Green Space: London, Stockholm, Helsinki and St Petersburg, 1850–2000. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.
World Health Organization. Urban Green Spaces and Health: A Review of Evidence. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2016. p25.
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the issues
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the concrete jungle The majority of city-dwellers do not live within a 5-minute walk of an expansive greenspace.
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the (wasteful) food production line.
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o feed a growing population, experts assert that cities will soon need to become new centres for food production.5 Projections show that food production needs to increase by 70% by 2050 in order to keep up with growing demand,5 yet according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), up to one-third of current global food production is discarded as food waste.6
occur at several stages of the food production line, including during harvest, transportation, processing and spoilage at retail level. Consumer-level waste accounts for approximately 10% of food-related carbon emissions, while production losses take up 25%.7 According to the FAO, if food loss and waste were regarded as its own country, its carbon footprint would rank as the world’s third-largest behind China and the USA.8
Harmful emissions and food wastage
Corcoran, Heather. ARTSY. 26 Dec 2016. www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-five-global-challengesdesigners-architects-can-solve-2017.
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FAO. Food Loss and Food Waste. 2017. www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste/en/.
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Wilson, Lindsay. Shrink That Footprint. www.shrinkthatfootprint.com/the-big-footprint-of-food-waste.
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FAO. Food Wastage Footprint & Climate Change. Nov 2015. http://www.fao.org/3/a-bb144e.pdf.
the issues
up to
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of edible food is discarded.
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Plant-based foods account for the highest proportion of combined consumer and production wastes, which far outstrips product wastes from animal agriculture such as meat or dairy.9 As such, while wastage does occur in other sectors, it can be argued that refining crop-farming practices would cause the biggest impact in the elimination of food waste. People are far more likely to consume misshapen produce if it were grown under their own supervision. Our current culture has popularised the aesthetics of produce by effect of mass production and availability in supermarkets; we are likelier to buy a perfectly round orange than an oval one. This means that at the farming stage of a product’s life, it is likely
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Wilson. Shrink That Footprint.
discarded if it does not meet the beauty standards set by the supplier and can subsequently become a part of the problem of food waste. However, if consumers were to grow their own food or opt for locallygrown, this misshapen product is far less likely to get discarded. Further, the middle-man that transports farm-grown produce to stores would be removed, and even more emissions saved from going out into the atmosphere. One of the aims of this project is therefore directed at a compression of our current mainstream food supply cycle, which would in turn lead to a significant drop in climate changing emissions.
the issues
would you buy this? Perfectly edible “ugly� food is discarded before it ever reaches the consumer.
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“
Scientists can show us what we shouldn’t do, but we need designers to show us what we should do.
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Babette Porcelijn, 2017
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the issues
polemical architecture: constructing a framework for advocacy.
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peculative architecture can serve as a polemic that disarticulates collective contemporary thought while advocating for a particular model of occupancy. For example, Archizoom’s No-Stop City in 1969 featured an infinite grid of nondescript structures (such as columns, elevators and walls) that accommodated activities of mass production and consumption on the same plane. This theoretical project was a critique of
homogenous urbanisation, and was used as a ‘scientific analysis of the contemporary urban condition’ by extending ‘the model of the factory into society’.11 In a similar manner, the proposal within this thesis aims to develop a framework from which a polemic that argues for reorganising cities to the advantage of the natural environment may emerge.
Frearson, Amy. “We need designers, not scientists, to show us how to change the world, says Babette Porcelijn”. Dezeen. 22 Nov 2017. www.dezeen.com/2017/11/22/babette-porcelijn-hidden-impact-interview-designerschange-world-good-design-bad-world/.
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Stauffer, Marie T. “Utopian Reflections, Reflected Utopias: Urban Designs by Archizoom and Superstudio.” AA Files, no. 47. 2002. pp22-36.
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The built environment is responsible for a large proportion of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, although this volume is negligible if electricity- and heatproduction are considered separate industries. With global populations increasing by 83 million people per year12 and precipitating urban sprawl, the emissions of cities are critical in contemporary discourse. Climate drawdown is the stage at which the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere declines on a yearly basis. A mitigation impact study (summarised in the graph to the right) found that food-related solutions such as farmland restoration and the promotion of plant-rich diets had the most potential to fight climate change over the next 30 years.13 In fact, foodrelated solutions far outstripped the combined potential of the Electricity
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Generation and Buildings & Cities categories in the fight against climate change. However, the identification of solutions, and the implementation of them, are two incredibly different conditions. While scientists have identified several methods for climate change mitigation, it is up to designers to map these systems for the everyday consumer’s participation. Architecture can be used as an instrument which demonstrates cities built on an ideal of reduced wastage in food production. By designing a new model of living which simultaneously strengthens our relationship to nature and encourages the elimination of food waste, we can begin to illustrate a polemic that advocates for a more prominent presence of the natural environment in our cities, and for its associated advantages.
Worldometers. “Growth Rate”. Worldometers. 2018. www.worldometers.info/world-population/.
Project Drawdown. “Mitigation Impact by Sector, 2020-2050 (in Gigatons of Carbon Dioxide-Equivalent)”. Drawdown. 2017. www.drawdown.org/solutions/buildings-and-cities. 13
land use
materials
transport
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322 food
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electricity generation
150
buildings + cities
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total atmospheric co2-equivalent avoided (gigatonnes)
the issues
women + girls
plausible mitigation impact study, adapted from project drawdown
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chapter 02
the proposal.
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chapter o2
the contract of environmental reciprocity: a manifesto.
W
ith the exponential global population increase that is driving climate change, urban sprawl and defective systems of food production, how can architecture be used to create an awareness of the destructive qualities of our cities and compel society to action? We believe that the solution might lie in a proposal to reorganise cities through a Contract of Environmental
Reciprocity: For every newlyconstructed and inhabitable piece of architecture, a building of an equivalent footprint within the old city is demolished. Every new development should accommodate a higher density than the building that it replaces. This creates a reciprocal relationship which would return large swathes of land to nature whilst promoting a densely populated urban environment that has an immediate connection to greenspace.
the contract in aberdeen A Proposal for Compact City-making
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concentrated on active pockets of the city whilst its unproductive zones were demolished, a situation could arise that is reminiscent of the Green Archipelago of Berlin proposed by Rem Koolhaas.14 However, with the archipelago’s prioritised metropolitan islands surrounded by naturally devolved remnants of the city, this polycentric urban system addressed The proposal can be compared to a contradictory circumstance to other polemical cities in architecture. the one presented here: it was a For instance, this proposal calls for project about a city with a declining the blanket demolition of built fabric population. Koolhaas’s manifesto moving inward from the existing strategized a means of sustaining city edge, with future development Berlin as a shrinking city, while following existing major roads; the Contract of Environmental it is a proposal to shape cities Reciprocity is a system intended to based on their existing form. If the accommodate city growth without Contract instead indicated that wiping out nature. future developments were to be The proposal is intended to serve as a polemic for reorganising cities that advocates for a new, contiguous relationship between city-dwellers and the natural environment. Here, it uses the city of Aberdeen in Scotland as a template for investigating its implications on urban form, memory and occupation.
14 Ungers, Oswald M. et al. The City in the City, Berlin: A Green Archipelago. Ennetbaden: Lars MĂźller Verlag, 1977.
the aberdeen archipelago The Berlin Archipelago re-imagined (through montage) as a proposal for growth in Aberdeen
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The Contract could also be measured against proposals such as the Delta Metropolis by Luigi Snozzi, where a critical piece of infrastructure acts as a limit within which no construction can occur. Snozzi’s proposal introduced a perfect circle that touched the boundaries of major cities within the Netherlands, with future development restricted to the areas outside of the circle.15 If Aberdeen City’s new bypass – which is currently being built – was to act as a similar infrastructural edge that restricted development, the coastal city would be preserved at the expense of its satellite towns outside the bypass. However, this proposal suggests that construction moves outward from points on the city’s urban edge while demolition is initiated inward. In this case, the bypass is a condition that is encountered in the enactment of
the Contract in Aberdeen and not a starting point for development in the way that Snozzi’s proposal is. For this Contract of Environmental Reciprocity to be established, it must be ratified by an illustrated set of rules. Each city’s response to these regulations would undoubtedly vary relative to their unique circumstances, yet perhaps a consensus of applicable guidelines may emerge. For instance, what is demolished in restitution for what is built? Which piece of infrastructure is prioritised over another? What defines the “core” of the city that cannot be touched by the nature that is seeping in, whether due to its historical significance or otherwise?
15 Vollaard, Pier. “Four Delta Metropolises”. ArchiNed, translated by Billy Nolan. 21 Jan 2003. https://www. archined.nl/2003/01/four-delta-metropolises.
the alpha metropolis The Delta Metropolis re-imagined (through montage) as a proposal for growth in Aberdeen
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the contract’s blueprint.
1. The first and most major statute of the Contract of Environmental Reciprocity states that for each building demolished, its replacement must be built to have an improved relative environmental impact.
the proposal
2. The new building must be of a similar-sized footprint to the demolished one, but must be constructed for high-density occupation.
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3. The new development must follow major existing roads that lead out of the city.
the proposal
4. The demolition must take place moving inward from the existing city edge.
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core
5. A Core should be established: an area of the “old� city should be preserved, untouched by the agenda of demolition.
the proposal
6. The design must attempt to work with the existing geography of the city, such as its contours, waterways and sub-roads.
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5 mins
5 mins
7. In line with current World Health Organization recommendations, each residence should be within a 5-minute walk of greenspace, which is equivalent to a maximum linear distance of 300 meters.16 This would likely lead to the development of compact linear districts that extend out of the city’s Core.
World Health Organization. “3.4 Indicators of Green Space Accessibility”. Urban Green Spaces and Health: A Review of Evidence. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2016. p25.
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the proposal
8. The design of the city should always prioritise the pedestrian over private motor vehicles.
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9. A route that links the linear districts at key points should be established, allowing a swift network of travel between them. This route may be adapted from an existing one or designed retrospectively – in the case of Aberdeen, the bypass is adapted for this purpose.
the proposal
10. “Nodes� should be developed as gates and transition hubs (containing service amenities and civic spaces) at the points where this access route cuts through the linear districts. Here, the realm of the human-driven motor vehicle ends and the domain of the pedestrian begins.
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the contract in aberdeen.
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nown colloquially as the Granite City, Aberdeen is one of the seven recognised cities of Scotland. It is also known as the “Oil Capital of Europe”, being at the centre of Europe’s petroleum industry. Having evolved from a fishing town to an oil boom town, Aberdeen’s key location by the North Sea has ensured that it is one of the richest places in the UK after London.17
When reading Aberdeen City in conjunction with its satellite towns in Aberdeenshire, the city plan discernibly begins to take the shape of a hand, with its palm representing the City and its fingers stretching along its five major road networks. By enacting the Contract on Aberdeen, this form is reinforced as a series of compact linear cities with wedges of nature defining the area between them.
Reed, Stanley. “Aberdeen, With a Foot on the Seafloor”. The New York Times [Online]. 28 July 2013. www. nytimes.com/2013/07/29/business/global/aberdeen-a-city-with-one-foot-on-the-seafloor.html.
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the open hand of aberdeen Illustration of proposal inspired by the Open Hand in Le Corbusier’s “Poem of the Right Angle”, indicating the core, bypass and proposed linear districts
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This planning pattern of urban growth integrated with slices of nature is currently successfully employed in cities such as Copenhagen and Freiburg. In 1947, the city of Copenhagen in Denmark adopted the Finger Plan as a system of expansion. It “allowed further outward growth of the city along public transport routes in a series of neighbourhoods, with green wedges penetrating into the city between the urban fingers, […] maintaining good access both to open spaces and to jobs and facilities”. The city authority also determined that
“pedestrians and cyclists should be given preferential treatment”, leading to the encouragement of “cheap and efficient movement options, [the promotion] of social activity [and the reduction of] pollution and greenhouse gas emissions”.18 The results of this city development plan included environmental benefits such as a reduction in noise and air pollution, and economic benefits such as an increased spending in retail facilities such as shops and cafes.
18 Barton, Hugh. “Copenhagen: city of cyclists”. City of Well-being: A Radical Guide to Planning. Abingdon: Routledge, 2017. p64-65.
the copenhagen finger plan Comparative illustration indicating city core, bypass and satellite towns
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Similarly, the city of Freiburg in Germany followed a concept of Fünffingerplan, or the Five-finger plan. This city’s development was more radial in form than “hand”shaped, leading to the definition of five green wedges between the axes of the city’s development that clearly separated green open spaces from building zones.19 The city tries to adhere to the idea of the Compact City, promoting the idea that accessibility to infrastructure networks by foot minimises car traffic and therefore leads to improved air quality. Public transport, pedestrian routes and bicycle networks are given priority
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over private motor vehicles.20 It can be reasonably assumed that the benefits that these cities enjoy would too become available to the Aberdonians that inhabit the “fingers” of Aberdeen. Both Copenhagen and Freiburg represent conceivable advantages in occupying Aberdeen with the Contract: decreased pollution, heightened social activity, environmentally-friendly cities and a general betterment of the residents’ wellbeing. The application of the Contract in Aberdeen is intended to include and refine these advantages further.
Hagan, Susannah. Ecological Urbanism: The Nature of the City. Abingdon: Routledge, 2015. p43.
Salomon, Dr. Dieter et al. “The Freiburg Charter for Sustainable Urbanism – Learning from Place.” The Academy of Urbanism. 10 Aug 2012. www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/freiburg-charter/. 20
the freiburg five-finger plan Comparative illustration indicating the city core and radial “fingers� of Freiburg
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For instance, take the statute that each residence should be no more than 300 meters away from greenspace. While this was recommended by the World Health Organization in the spirit of access to parks and other greenspaces within dense urban centres, the Contract interprets the rule by granting every residence access to seemingly unlimited fields through the development of dense, compact linear strips of occupation. The city is expecting a new bypass that is currently under construction to be completed by the spring of 2018.21 Within this particular speculation, the form of the bypass can be appropriated for the Contract of Environmental Reciprocity by defining it as the route that allows
visitors rapid access to the linear districts of the city that they are choosing to visit. This would have the added effect of keeping the status of the bypass unchanged: the city form would eventually take the form of a “hand” by the Contract as it grows, and the compacted “fingers” would never completely swallow the bypass. This process of a bypass becoming absorbed into its city fabric can be seen in the historical growth of other cities such as London’s ring roads (the M25), or Dundee’s Kingsway. If Aberdeen defined these “fingers” of urban density, the new bypass would never be overwhelmed by the city’s growth and disappear.
21 BBC News. “Aberdeen Bypass to open ‘in April or May’”. BBC News [Online]. 24 Jan 2018. http://www.bbc. co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-42802337.
the proposal
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aberdeen: the status of the bypass Comparative maps illustrating that roads get “swallowed� by unchecked urban sprawl
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a reading.
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the approach.
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he Contract establishes a masterplan for Aberdeen in the form of five compact linear districts that extend out of the Core. The approach to the design of these districts (or “fingers”) can be dissected into the laying out of its city grid; the design of its residual spaces (its central avenue and crosswise streets); the composition
of interruptions to the grid (such as where the grid interacts with the existing); and the politics of occupying this new typology. This author’s particular focus was the design of the city grid typology. This was achieved with two specific priorities:
a reading
nolli plan of proposed grid
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High Density Occupation The grid is designed with a high density building typology that runs along the centre of its longitudinal axis (the Manhattan density) and a density that rapidly shrinks along either side of its transverse axis (the Dutch density). This new city model would provide the benefits of two different degrees of occupation within a very short distance, alongside the advantages that come with access to the countryside from the residents’ proverbial doorsteps.
a reading
Self-Sufficiency The dense urban grid is intended to allow the city residents to remain as selfsufficient as possible, removing the middle-man in food-production. This was achieved by the introduction of farming typologies within close proximity to the grid that met minimum food requirements of the adjoining strip of city.
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“
Manhattan is the 20th century’s Rosetta Stone.
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Rem Koolhaas, 1994
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a reading
new aberdeen: a montage.
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city planning system, creating physical conditions that allowed both business and society to flourish. While the commissioners’ original intention was to include Manhattan’s natural geography in their planning of the streets, their final plan revealed little evidence that the topography The Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, was ever considered. In the words which has been described as the of Lewis Mumford: “With a T-square “single most important document and a triangle, finally, the municipal in New York City’s development”,22 engineer, without the slightest training laid out a rectangular gridiron for as either an architect or a sociologist, Manhattan that is arguably the could ‘plan’ a metropolis”.23 most famous application of that his speculative proposal condenses development into a compact strip that follows the axis of major roads. We propose that this high-density development be modelled after the Manhattan block.
22
Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. New York: Monacelli Press, 1994
Cohen, Paul and Augustyn, Robert. Manhattan in Maps 1527 – 2014. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2014.
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The proposal for Aberdeen therefore montages a strip of Manhattan blocks into the plan, although it also takes into consideration the existing geography of the region. Waterways, field lines and topography are allowed to influence the plan’s development. The blocks flank the central market boulevard that defines the axis of development, creating a lively streetscape between them.
attractive living environment of a different high-density occupation occurs. Aberdeen’s population is not condemned to living in sky-high towers, but offered an alternative choice of living in a residence that reflects a human-scale and a different type of vibrant streetscape.
These two distinct occupational typologies of the “Manhattan Density” and “Dutch Density” are On a crosswise axis, we propose placed in stark contrast to each that smaller-scale residences stand other and to the field, describing a as a transition between the central model of city living that argues for a Manhattan block and the field. new relationship between cities and Modelled after the townhouses of nature. Borneo Island in Amsterdam, an
a reading
High-Rise Scale (Manhattan)
Human Scale (Manhattan)
Human Scale (Amsterdam)
a serial vision for a new aberdeen Snapshots exploring the journey through the condensed city
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a typology for self-sufficiency.
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large footprints of land with nutrientrich soil, whereas vertical farms can build on a fraction of the footprint and are not limited by the constraints of soil type, making it ideal for city sites. Production in vertical farms is year-round as opposed to seasonal, and its use of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) technology can ensure that the pesticides and chemicals required in traditional farms are avoided. Most importantly, However, the processes of traditional the ability of the vertical farm to farming can involve several meet demand is more within human disadvantages when compared control than if crops were left to the to recent advances in the field mercies of weather patterns, crop of vertical farming. For instance, diseases and pests. traditional farming methods need n the pursuit of designing a selfsufficient city, the question arises of the types of farming that would best suit the purposes of the design. Farming can be subdivided into various categories (such as arable, pastoral, mixed, subsistence, commercial, sedentary or nomadic) but the majority of these can be classified further as Traditional farming typologies.
a reading
wind turbine
solar cells
rainwater collection
aeroponics
drip irrigation hydroponics
aquaponics & aquaculture restaurant
shipping bay
grocery
biodigesters
a vertical farm
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However, there are also models of urban farming that prescribe to neither traditional nor vertical farming typologies. These utilise particular methods of growing food that can be applied to create a more vibrant environment within cities. In practical terms, the vertical farming typology would meet the needs of the residents more efficiently. However, in the application of the Contract to Aberdeen and the installation of farms to support the ensuing linear city districts, it can be argued that a more appealing environment is created by introducing open landscaped zones instead of rigid
buildings that accommodate stacks of produce. A reference project that could help the design of the farm typology is the Beacon Food Forest project. It featured an urban farm that was cultivated on public land by replicating woodland ecosystems and replacing typical plant species with edible trees and shrubs, creating an edible food forest. It used a permaculture design system and is based in Seattle, Washington. The goal of the project was to bring together a diverse community while growing food that was freely available to all.24
24 Beacon Food Forest. “What is a Food Forest?�. Beacon Food Forest Permaculture Project. http://www. beaconfoodforest.org/.
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the beacon food forest
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Another instance of an urban farm can be seen in the Urban Homestead project, where a garden of around 400m2 is able to feed a family of four, producing approximately 2700 kilograms of food.25 These calculations were taken forward into the proposal for Aberdeen to determine an estimate of how much
farmland would be required to feed the proposed city. These models of urban farms influenced the design of a city with a compacted food chain, aiming to generate a new, contiguous relationship between urban form and nature.
The Urban Homestead. “The Facts & Numbers�. The Urban Homestead. 2010. http://urbanhomestead.org/ about/by-the-numbers/.
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the urban homestead
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a compacted food chain.
W
hile food waste can occur at any stage of the food chain, there are far more losses at the production stage than at the consumer level. This can include crops that are discarded for not meeting a quality standard, edible produce that is lost to pest or disease, or the expiry of food due to poor storage and short shelf-lives. In this proposal for a compact linear city that is bordered by a food production system, several of these issues disappear. Consumers tend
to favour locally-grown produce due to its greater degree of transparency and for the reassurance that the food comes from a nearby farmstead, and so must not have gone through the merciless processes of pest prevention and shelf-life-extensions that large commercial sellers employ. In fact, it can be assumed that an entirely more sustainable system of farming could be created to supply the residents by reducing the farmto-fork distance.
a reading
harvest
compost
handling
consumption
transportation
the compacted food chain
+ storage
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imports
51% peru
uk
71%
of food consumed in the UK is imported.
Latin American asparagus is available in the UK during the English growing season.
of land in the UK is used for farming.
peru food safety system
asparagus
arable farm
processing & packaging facility
spain
Imports have overtaken UK strawberries during the British Strawberry season.
spain food safety system c u s t o m s
strawberries
america
76% of apples consumed in the UK are from overseas.
usa food safety system
apples
slaughter house
israel
potatoes
Imported potatoes tend to be israel food in storage for over six months. safety system pastoral farm
scotland
41%
more farmland is proposed to make Aberdeen self-sufficient.
inverness
dundee
perth
stirling
edinburgh
,000 hectares of Scottish land is used to grow fruit and vegetables.
glasgow
20
aberdeen
local store
10 min drive
tesco distribution centre (livingston)
proposed
pastoral farm
mill
(cattle feed) 5 min walk
corn field
compact city
food mileage: a comparison
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chapter o3
Harvest There are two plausible aspects to the harvesting phase of this scenario: 1. A regulated farming system that employs members of the community, and; 2. A recreational field that fosters social interaction between community members. In the first condition, the farm is a machine. Based on calculations from the Urban Homestead project, this farming system aims to produce enough food to feed the city and is tended to by members of the community that are employed full-time for this purpose (the “farmers�). These farmers are accommodated within the grid and paid for their services. During the summer months, a period of intense harvesting is expected to occur. The farm itself is restricted from access so that not all members of the public are allowed to meander through. However, as a second condition, the outer fields are accessible to all members of the public. Residents of the city may enter for free, and non-resident visitors pay a nominal fee for access. These outer edges are used as picturesque food forests, growing seasonal fruit that community members may gather as they please. These grounds are also tended to by farmers, but the process is far less intensive than in the first condition.
a reading
Handling and Storage Food is grown to organic standards. The produce that is harvested is immediately divided into allocated portions that get sent to the city’s residents on a weekly basis; food does not get discarded at a production level. Any surplus in growth is addressed by selling it at farmer’s markets in the central boulevard, or to local businesses such as restaurants and cafes. Short term storage facilities are provided for the harvested produce to be accommodated before they are delivered into the city. Long term storage can also be provided during the winter months for certain types of preserved foods (for example, pickled or frozen) that can either be sent to residents or sold at the market stalls of the boulevard.
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chapter o3
Transportation The volume of food required for the city’s needs can be grown and distributed locally. The city could use a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) model, which is a system that allows consumers to subscribe to the harvest of a particular farm – in this case, one of the farms that border the city. Considering the compacted nature of the city and its pedestrian prioritisation, one conceivable distribution concept could be one in which hired members of the public cycle through the city and deliver allocated portions of food straight to residents’ doorsteps.
a reading
Consumption and Compost The scenario for consumption of food is twofold: 1. Consumption in the home, and; 2. Consumption through a business. With regards to consumption in the home, the city residents are encouraged to mark any residual food that they will not or cannot use as compost for their own gardens, or to return these leftovers to the city so that it can be used as fertiliser within its own farming systems. However, the farming system does not only cater to the residents. It could also conceivably cater to businesses such as local cafes and restaurants. Agreements between these businesses and the farmers are made, so that the purveyors of the various dining establishments in the city may reassure customers that their food is fresh and locally sourced.
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conclusion.
T
he current trajectory of population growth is driving climate change, urban sprawl and wasteful food production systems. Our cities have become embodiments of these failures, with nature being beaten back by the advances of human development. The Contract of Environmental Reciprocity is a proposal that confronts our failures in city-making by demonstrating a reciprocal system of urban growth, prioritising both nature and high-density living. Using Aberdeen as a setting for investigating the speculative occupation of this social contract, the proposal acts as a polemic for reorganising cities to the advantage of the natural environment, and as a critique of the current food production system by calling for cities to have an immediate proximal relationship to the farmland that supports them.
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It would be near impossible to design a city from scratch; this project therefore montages successful city plans such as the Manhattan grid and the townhouses of Amsterdam together in order to develop an architectural language for a vision of a compact city. The occupation of this montage is then explored by speculating on the operation of a new, condensed food supply chain that attempts to eliminate food waste in cities by removing the middleman of the farm-to-fork process. Overall, the proposal is used to reflect upon the discourse surrounding architecture’s effect on the environment; to challenge the failure of the urban form in balancing the accommodation of both man and nature; and to pursue an agenda of advocacy for collective climate change mitigation through the reorganization of our cities.
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acknowledgements.
F
irst, to Atousa, Kirsten and Jackie, my partners-in-crime for the last seven months of this project. I literally could not have done this without you.
To my tutors, Lorens Holm and Andrew Stoane, for their encouragement that this was a project worth pursuing, and for their continual guidance. To Aehshaan Burah, Jose Rodriguez, Samiya Sajjad and Ally Thomson, for proof-reading all those drafts. To Gavin Tong, for your confidence in me, your creative input, and for your uncompromising companionship over the last six years. This journey would have been a worse one without you by my side. To Francisco Jose Rodriguez Barrientos. Thank you for your constant presence, your help in building models, and for bringing blankets to the library. You are my lighthouse. Mama oyata adareyi. Finally, to my parents, Shihaan and Fazwina Burah, for funding my extremely expensive university education. I will never be able to repay you, but I hope that my love (as poor an exchange as it may seem) will suffice.
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list of references. Bibliography Barton, Hugh. “Copenhagen: city of cyclists”. City of Well-being: A Radical Guide to Planning. Abingdon: Routledge, 2017. p64-65. Bhatta, Basudeb. Analysis of Urban Growth and Sprawl from Remote Sensing Data. Berlin: Springer, 2010. Clark, Peter, ed. The European City and Green Space: London, Stockholm, Helsinki and St Petersburg, 1850–2000. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016. Cohen, Paul and Augustyn, Robert. Manhattan in Maps 1527 – 2014. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2014. Hagan, Susannah. Ecological Urbanism: The Nature of the City. Abingdon: Routledge, 2015. p43. Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. New York: Monacelli Press, 1994. Stauffer, Marie T. “Utopian Reflections, Reflected Utopias: Urban Designs by Archizoom and Superstudio.” AA Files, no. 47. 2002. pp22-36. Ungers, Oswald M. et al. The City in the City, Berlin: A Green Archipelago. Zurich: Lars Muller Publishers, 2013.
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Webography BBC News. “Aberdeen Bypass to open ‘in April or May’”. BBC News. 24 Jan 2018. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkneyshetland-42802337. Beacon Food Forest. “What is a Food Forest?”. Beacon Food Forest Permaculture Project. N.d. http://www.beaconfoodforest.org/. Corcoran, Heather. “Five Global Challenges Designers and Architects Can Solve in 2017.” ARTSY. 26 Dec 2016. www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorialfive-global-challenges-designers-architects-can-solve-2017. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “Key facts”. Food Loss and Food Waste. 2017. www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste/en/. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “Carbon footprint of Global Food Wastage”. Food Wastage Footprint & Climate Change. Nov 2015. http://www.fao.org/3/a-bb144e.pdf. Frearson, Amy. “We need designers, not scientists, to show us how to change the world, says Babette Porcelijn”. Dezeen. 22 Nov 2017. www.dezeen. com/2017/11/22/babette-porcelijn-hidden-impact-interview-designerschange-world-good-design-bad-world/. Project Drawdown. “Plausible Mitigation Impact by Sector, 2020-2050 (in Gigatons of CO2-equivalent)”. Drawdown. 2017. www.drawdown.org/ solutions/buildings-and-cities.
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Reed, Stanley. “Aberdeen, With a Foot on the Seafloor”. The New York Times. 28 July 2013. www.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/business/global/aberdeen-acity-with-one-foot-on-the-seafloor.html. Salomon, Dr. Dieter et al. “The Freiburg Charter for Sustainable Urbanism – Learning from Place.” The Academy of Urbanism. 10 Aug 2012. www. academyofurbanism.org.uk/freiburg-charter/. The United Nations. “‘We Are the First Generation that Can End Poverty, the Last that Can End Climate Change’, Secretary-General Stresses at University Ceremony”. United Nations – Meetings Coverage and Press Releases. 28 May 2015. www.un.org/press/en/2015/sgsm16800.doc.htm. The Urban Homestead. “The Facts & Numbers”. The Urban Homestead. 2010. http://urbanhomestead.org/about/by-the-numbers/. Vollaard, Pier. “Four Delta Metropolises”. ArchiNed, translated by Billy Nolan. 21 Jan 2003. https://www.archined.nl/2003/01/four-delta-metropolises. Wilson, Lindsay. “The food wastage footprint is big”. Shrink That Footprint. shrinkthatfootprint.com/the-big-footprint-of-food-waste. World Health Organization. “3.4 Indicators of Green Space Accessibility”. Urban Green Spaces and Health: A Review of Evidence. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2016. p25. Worldometers. “Growth Rate”. Worldometers. 2018. www.worldometers.info/ world-population/.
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additional bibliography. Aureli, Pier V. Dogma: 11 Projects. London: AA Publications, 2013. Banham, Reyner. Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. London: The Penguin Press, 1971. Franklin, Daniel. Megatech: Technology in 2050. London: Profile Books Ltd, 2017. Hawken, Paul, ed. Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. New York: Penguin Books, 2017. Naismith, Robert J. The Story of Scotland’s Towns. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd., 1989. Thadani, Dhiru A. The Language of Cities and Towns: A Visual Dictionary. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2010. Venturi, Robert et al. Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1972.
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list of illustrations. Where no source reference is given, the image has been supplied by the author.
Page The Issues: Killing Nature Robin Wood. “Destroying nature is destroying life”. Behance, illustrated by Illusion and Grabarz & Partner. 2016. www.behance.net/ gallery/34853303/Destroying-nature-is-destroying-life.
1
Ignorance is Bliss
6
ComplexCity (Adapted) Original: Lee, Jang Sub. “Moscow”. Lee Jang Sub, CompexCity. 2008. http://www.leejangsub.com.
8
The Concrete Jungle
10
Up to 1/3rd of Edible Food is Discarded.
12
Would You Buy This? Plausible Mitigation Impact Study (Adapted) Original: Project Drawdown. “Mitigation Impact by Sector, 2020-2050 (in Gigatons of Carbon Dioxide-Equivalent)”. Drawdown. 2017. www. drawdown.org/solutions/buildings-and-cities.
14
The Proposal: Aberdeen Regional Plan Group work.
19
The Contract in Aberdeen Group work.
22
The Aberdeen Archipelago
24
18
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The Alpha Metropolis The Contract: Rules 1 - 10
26 27 - 36
The Open Hand of Aberdeen The Copenhagen Finger Plan
38
The Freiburg Five-finger Plan
42
Aberdeen: The Status of the Bypass
44
A Reading: Montage of Four Thesis Components
45
Nolli Plan of Proposed Grid
48
Section through Proposed Grid
40
49 - 50
A Serial Vision for a New Aberdeen
54
A Vertical Farm Futurism. “The Rise of Vertical Farms”. Visual Capitalist. http://www. visualcapitalist.com/how-vertical-farming-works.
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The Beacon Food Forest Barth, Brian. “Beacon Food Forest”. Inhabitat. https://inhabitat.com/ americas-first-food-forest-from-ground-level-to-canopy-urbanagriculture-is-growing-seattle/beacon-food-forest
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The Urban Homestead The Urban Homestead. “Photo Gallery”. The Urban Homestead. http:// urbanhomestead.org/front-porch-farmstand.
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79
The Compacted Food Chain
62
Food Mileage: A Comparison
63 - 64
Harvest, Handling and Storage (Section 1:100)
65 - 66
Transportation, Consumption and Compost (Section 1:100)
67 - 68