Assignment 2: New Aquaponics for Urban Farmers

I love nature.

We are part of nature and have a great impact on it whether we realize or not.

Interestingly, I ended up with a quick exercise to design an aquaponic system for an old industrial building.

Basically, water from fish tank is pumped up to go through soil based greens and watercress on gravel as filters while nourishing them. cleaned water once again flows back into the tank. How wonderful.

Without defying the techtonics of the aged building, components are arranged to track the movement of the sun along the south facade. Large gesture of the overall arrangement shows flow of water throughout the building corresponding and mingling with natural light. New clearstory is added to allow more light to soil based greens.

The sunlight becomes quantified through modern technology: Autodesk Ecotect, analyzes sunpath, radiation, insolation in btus, or solar exposure. The software offers detailed analysis with graphs and report to aid decision making during design phase.

For new urban farmers and architects, various new tools are available.

To maximize renewable resources and preserve the world we live in, we must work together.

Assignment 2: Tree of Houses

I use “ tree of houses” by Paul Klee as a metaphor for the vertical farm.
Trees absorb water and sunlight then neutralize people who inhabited in the houses, just like the vertical farm in the unban environment provide food for people who lives in the neighborhood.Ecotect here is a tool to divide area that need 24 hours artificial light. I open it to be an atrium and planning to plant trees of beds. Locations of beds are decided according the maximum use of daylight in the atrium under adjustable roof, when the rest is green roof. Storm water storage is at ground level when columns here become metaphorical tree branches.

For educational purpose, visitors can stand at a certain floor but view fish tank level, filtering bed, and vegetable bed at the same time to understand how the vertical farm operate. The challenge of the project would be reflective and translucent material research to maximize the depth of daylight.

Assignment 2: Ecotect Analysis

For my analysis, I was interested in stepped structure.
I thought having wider spaces on upper floors with more windows would maximize the natural light into the building. I first did shadow studies to see how deep the light penetrates into each floor during different season.

And then, I tested PAR values during spring, summer, and winter. Based on the results, I didn't get much of natural light than I expected.
Therefore, I decided to have sky light that is open to below in order to bring more light into the lower floors as well.

As I assumed, I was able to get much higher PAR values on each floor, and much wider spaces were covered by natural light. Although, I got lower PAR values during winter with the sky light, more light was permeated into the building and lit more spaces.

PostNature

I just finished watching the first episode of the Ken Burns documentary on National Parks. It highlighted the early debate over public vs. private, and how and where to preserve nature as the United States grew into an industrial superpower. And importantly the types of characters involved in the debate and motives behind their involvement.

So if you get a chance, check it out. Kind of Hollywood but definitely on point.

Also along the lines of preserving nature in early America. Below is a link to a reading that I mentioned in class the other day. This reading is about the debate between country folk and mill owners in Rhode Island in the late 1700's regarding migratory fish and the problems of dams restricting migration. It mainly centers around the mills and dams near the Pawtucket Falls, just a half-mile downriver from the Blackstone Mill that we have been studying.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1vJ0s7v0EmjMTI3MmM1YjQtNjkxMS00MzFmLWEyNTQtNmMxNWI3YWNmZDhl&hl=en

Of course the mill owners win pretty quickly, and the rest is history, but I can't help but think about what life might be like if the farmers had won. Out on the Blackstone catching salmon and herring from my canoe this Spring...

Assignment 2: Aquaponic Experiment

Instead of simply draining water from one level to the next, this urban aquaponic scheme incorporates the use of vertical growing areas to maximize production and economy. The skylights are designed to take advantage of helpful thermal gain in the winter, but to deflect unwanted thermal gain in the summer, further heightening the energy efficiency of the building. Any supplemental heating or lighting needed will be powered by photovoltaics positioned on the roof. Ecotect was used to analyze the light efficiency of the space.

Assignment 1: Gleaning; Brady, Bruce, Garrett

Assignment 1: Gleaning; Morgan, Shinah, Ali

Driven by the desire and curiosity to better know where our food comes from, our gleaning investigation started by observing a range of Providence grocery options. Whole Foods, the RI Farm Fresh Farmer's Market, Stop & Shop and 7-Eleven became the key case-studies in which we observed the origin of various fruits and vegetables. The following images are the origins of apples in first winter then summer. The left column depicts the macro scale of the journey from farm to distribution center to retail, and the right column the micro. The lack of a macro scale indicates that the procedure occurs at an entirely micro scale.

One of the most interesting finds of our research was the use of low oxygen storage technology by which most apples are stored today. Low oxygen storage allows apples to stay fresher for much longer, allowing them to be picked closer to their ripening date, no matter how long the journey before them is. What was interesting about this discovery was the question of how it complicates the question of the local versus the nonlocal in terms of carbon footprint. If Washington can produce and ship fresh apples (without low oxygen storage) in a month that Rhode Island would need to draw from low oxygen stores- is the local still more valuable than the non-local (at least in terms of carbon footprint)?

Assignment 1: Food in the City: Language and Image

Brad Kisicki and Nick Buehrens

Our gleaning exercise hit the streets to document the quantity and character of food-related advertising on the streets of Providence. While by no means an exhaustive study, we covered 10 miles worth of streetscape radiating out from Kennedy Plaza, our self imposed "city center". We chose to focus our cataloging on the primary signage used by any establishment whose main business was to sell food.

Our first attempt to organize information resulted in the creation of a series of photo-embedded maps that give both a geographic and qualitative understanding of the distribution of food along our chosen routes.


The second part of our analysis combed through the collected data to compile graphically accessible statistics on the types of businesses surveyed, and the language and colors utilized by signage. The result is a snapshot of the diversity of food opportunities in the center of Providence.

gleaning

We will be watching the film “The Gleaners and I” (Les Glaneurs et La Glaneuse) by Agnes Varda in class together. The film is, as described by film critic A. O. Scott “not just a record of what is seen but a way of paying attention.”

In groups of 2 or 3, you are to spend the next few days paying attention to the situation of food in the city of Providence. You are to use your powers of perception and tools of documentation to observe and analyze a particular relationship between food and the city. Special attention should be paid to the scale of occurrence of the relationship you identify. Is it relevant at numerous scales simultaneously?

Your project is to make visible the relationship or relationships that you observe. The work can use any media available to you, and can be in two, three or four dimensions. This visualization is a conscious and creative act that is grounded by the media you choose.

Make sure to clarify your area of research, and be very specific in your attentions. This gleaning is not intended to be comprehensive, but instead to illuminate specific factors that may not otherwise be readily apparent.

welcome

This blog serves as the clearinghouse for ideas and documents associated with a Rhode Island School of Design advanced architectural studio on the topic of adaptive reuse for four-season urban agriculture (so called 'vertical farming') in the Providence RI area.

The following is a description of the class:

The cells in the skin of the human body have the remarkable capacity to transform sunlight into vitamin D, an essential nutrient to our thriving and growing. Without it our skeletal system deteriorates, and bones become weak. Certain plants use their ‘skin’ to breathe light as we breathe air: photosynthesis is a metabolic pathway that uses light to translate carbon dioxide into nourishing organic compounds, releasing oxygen as waste. The class will look at the capacity of the skin of a building to harness light and nourish life within, resulting in case studies for a new building typology: the vertical farm.

The semester will be spent investigating existing 20th c. mill buildings and other underutilized infrastructure in Providence for potential as environments for growing, harvesting and selling food. Students will work in groups to analyze and then reconfigure existing structures to develop a rich and varied day-lit environment indoors. The building will be modified into an environment for growing, harvesting and selling food. The program will be a ‘vertical farm’ and marketplace.

At its core, the studio proposes that the professional field (of architecture) needs tilting. Students of architecture are leaving school to enter a society much transformed and inhospitable to the traditional entry-level mindset. Young architects are uniquely poised to become active participants in the transformation of not only the profession but of status quo systems in contemporary society. Our food system is undergoing much renewed interest and scrutiny. It is the locus for many contemporary debates: health, environment, environmental justice, sustainability, local vs. global, community, fast vs. slow. Concurrent with architectural explorations of vertical ‘fields’, students will put their skills and sensibilities towards more systemic problems, at the local level and beyond, to invite the potential tilting of their own future.