CNN on Urban Agriculture:

Urban farms herald green city 'revolution'

Greening Food Deserts Act:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-4971

"To increase the emphasis on urban agricultural issues in the Department of Agriculture through the establishment of a new office to ensure that Department authorities are used to effectively encourage local agricultural production and increase the availability of fresh food in urban areas, particularly underserved communities experiencing hunger, poor nutrition, obesity, and food insecurity, and for other purposes."

Assignment 2: Ecotect Analysis - Light Study of a Vertical Ramp

Garrett McClure

The concept: A square opening will be placed in the roof, and Vertical ramps will be constructed inside the space of 91 Hartford St. in which, plants (ideally leafy greens) will go through a full growing cycle from top to bottom. They will be housed in floating planters that will be chained together and will be hand cranked down the ramps by farm workers. The water will be pumped up to the top from a fish tank below the ramps and will naturally flow down the ramps keeping fresh water moving through the system. Holes in the bottom of the planters will allow water to get to the soil and allow roots to grow through to the water, if they wish. . .Areas along the path will specified as harvesting stations contributing to the efficiency of the system.

In order to find the best configuration of ramps for the space, a light experiment was set up, testing four different iterations. For the experiment, the size of the base panel for the ramps remained a constant 7' wide. The two factors that changed were the horizontal and vertical spacings.

Ramp A:
vertical spacing - 4'
horizontal spacing - 3'-6" o.c.

Ramp B:
vertical spacing - 4'
horizontal spacing - 1'-9" o.c.

Ramp C:
vertical spacing - 2'
horizontal spacing - 3'-6"

Ramp D:
vertical spacing - 2'
horizontal spacing - 1'-9" o.c.

An Ecotect test for overall daylight analysis was run over all four iterations and the square footage of direct sunlight was calculated based upon the results.
After analyzing the square footage data it was found that Ramp C was the best iteration, with a vertical spacing of 2' and a horizontal spacing of 3'-6" o.c.
Also from the experiments an yearly average line of direct sunlight could be deduced and helped inform a section drawing. A plan was sketched to find a way of connecting the ramps so that the portion of the planter that did not get direct sunlight would be turned along the ramp's path to give it direct sunlight. The different sides of the planter would go back and forth along their path alternating which side was in direct sunlight.

Assignment 2: VERTICAL PLANTERS

Assignment 2: Ecotect Analysis

My first foray into the world of adaptive reuse and urban farming took shape around a scheme where old floor boards were re-assembled to create a tiered interior garden. Because of the narrow column bay spacing, it is easy to imagine a scenario where small members span between existing beams, adding a cross grain to the building fabric that helps to define planting areas.
A system of tensile cables helps to support beds on different levels within a given story. This allows for increased light penetration, as well as allowing for easy access to all planting areas.
A translucent roof assembly over the planting areas further increases light available for growing. As would be expected, a range of light values are present going from the top to bottom of the system.

My analysis within ecotect focused on maximizing the productivity of the configuration I had established. I developed a reflective bounce wall at the back (north) of the planting area, and then used ecotect to map its effectiveness using the solar ray tracing tool. I also measured the average annual incident radiation on the wall.

By varying the angle of the wall and mapping the results, I was able to compile a matrix of conditions that charts both seasonal and architectural change.

Assignment 2: Rolling with the Ecotect

I moved forward with Ecotect analysis by creating a simple sectional scheme that relied on a bounce wall. With the exterior facade oriented towards the south and the roof ripped off and replaced by a transparent hoop house I set out to 3 dimensionally map the quantitative qualities of light available to the interior.

Above is the basic section of the building with plans below.




Here are a few renderings via Ecotect to help clarify the basic scheme:



The vast majority of my time was spent rendering very dense 3 dimensional images and converting them into a usable format; in this case animation.

The animation below shows average daily sunlight hours and ave. daily sun intensity in ft.Cand.



This animation shows ave. daily PAR and ave total radiation.