LOCAVORACIOUS (August 2013 - May 2014)

Undergraduate Thesis

Abstract: 

The integration of an agriculturally productive landscape in urban spaces can radically change the way we consider food production and consumption in megacities and allow them to become “locavoracious”. 

The idea of continuous productive urban landscapes is not new; it is the notion that urban agriculture can contribute to more sustainable and resilient food systems while also benefitting the urban realm. This thesis aims to address the possibility of “farming” in multiple planes of the built environment—not only ground or roof but also façade—creating a new dynamic landscape for urban food production. 

A megacity is an urban agglomeration with over ten million residents. In 1950, there were only two: New York City and Tokyo. Today, there are 23 and by 2050 there will be 37. A major driver of this thesis is to reconsider how megacities of today and the future should produce and consume their food.

The design strategy, located in Stuyvesant Town, Manhattan, attempts to create a multidimensional landscape for agricultural production that bridges the gap between three major components of urban architectural tectonics: the façade, the roof, and the ground. The integration of these key components is essential to creating an urban topography that maximizes available growing space and seamlessly blends infrastructures and flows. The goal is to use Stuyvesant Town as a proof of concept. Seeing as it has abundant open space and available, essentially homogenous, rooftop space, it will inform the development of future productive landscapes that encompass larger areas and even whole cities. Ideally, the principles and tectonic strategies envisioned for Stuyvesant Town will be applicable to other sites and will become a new paradigm for the creation of cities.