my presentation took a while because of the bad time management.
i was not able to finish explaining all my ideas and design due to the time limit.
however i had a positive feed back on the design of the basic form as i tried to adopt shape of the existing surrounding buildings into my building fascia to give the character of paddington area.
but there were few negative feed backs regarding..
structure - would need more columns to hold the whole block as i've shown columns in the centre line of the building
deep level - especially commercial area. the commercial area is too deep under ground level. it was recommended if i designed whole building (inside) following contour line just like i designed on out side. but it was the initial idea as it was shown on week 9 and 10 but as the space were commercial, i tried to give much space as possible....
one of the comment was regarding the messiness would cause with the soil and temperature in urban farm area which i never thought about....
there are 3 major feature on the deck area
1. deck - there will be rain water catchment
2. sky light - to light up the dark area of the building and also to save the energy
3. greenary - reproduced park and public outdoor farm area the produce/fruits will be free to users
design form
upper 2nd floor - cafe & library/research area
upper 1st floor - food court & community meeting area
it is designed with long tables so user is encourage to interact with others sitting next to
community meeting area where looking down to the foyer area
ground floor - entry open foyer with feature tree structure column
this space will be the main space of the building as from here user get a clear idea of where to go 'sense of place'.
ground floor - fresh produce market
again feature tree column structure in the middle. the structure works as a lighting as well
lower 1st and 2nd level - community farm
lower 3rd level - research centre
lower 4th & 5th level - commercial farm growing area and preparation area
and for last diagram shows how the water filteration would made through the building
through...
- septic tank.
- sand filter
- pump pit
- and through palnting pads
- fresh water
plans
sections
my main design intention of the form is keeping paddington's character.
from the fascia by adopting the character of the surrounding buildings it will soft the concrete slab structure fitting into the area.
and second by using horizontal mullions on the glazing giving similarity with weather boards of the surrounding residential houses the whole building would associate with the whole paddington site.
the root
just like the main structural purpose of the root 'holding up the body and absorb the nutrients from the ground.
my concept is to design a space/building where give the energy to the community and hold them together...
deign process
after the last check up with tutor i finalised the floor plan and building form to start on the CAD system. i mainly used revit to draw the whole model and going to use lumina for rendering and animation.. revit process
form work
as per the initial concept the form of building is following step farm.
through the building i tried to open the building as possible as to get a view of paddington area using advantage of the slope and also for the maximum sunlight. also if someone is looking at the building from the bottom the whole inside structure will be seen. so even user is inside they can see the outside and feel the outside while inside..
the interior of the building will be formed following series of the feature tree column. trunks will be spread out from the main column with lighting feature.
so every level looks like they are all linked up as a tree.
i tried highlight the entry foyer space. from that space people get a clear sense of space where to go. from the entry foyer where with high ceiling with open view to up and downstairs, clear idea of each floor can be seen or imagined. it will lead the user through the whole building.
energy recycling system
recycling and reusing energy will be the biggest issue on the design.
most of all, as the building would require alot of energy, not just depends on the
solar energy but creating an energy from the waste will be the way to
solve the problem...
by
using food waste making methane gas to run the turbine to create an
energy is what i found to be the best way as well as it can reduce the
food waste made from the cafe and food court from the upstairs and the
waste will be used as compost for the urban farm.
above is the basic idea i had from the beginning how the farm works with the constant lighting 24/7. but still needed to figure out how the pad works.
from the web site www.austech.com.au i found the solution for the in and out door planting pad system. with water proofing system and other layers the planting is possible over concrete slab system.
even though i drew the rough sectional detail below, it did not clear visual image of how it works. and above image gives the clear idea of what materials are needed and how it works. seasonal vegetables
and to finallise the vege types found the list of the veges grown in australia by the season
based on the above list the facility can divide up the vege types into two different weather conditions as 'warm' and 'cool' so urban(community) and commercial farm can operate with two different floors with two weather conditions.
aeroponic system
as i'm looking at different ways of growing crops in an indoor urban farm, below is one of the way of stacking up the pad on the same size of land given by following aeroponic system.
led lighting are installed under layers to light up each layers.
water filtering system
water filtering system is the main feature of the building by filtering through the natural farm system.
as it is shown above the building needs to have alot of space for the water tank with septic tank, sand filter and through pump pit to the planter bed so even the planters filter the grey water it still feeds the fairly clear water to the planters. and planter will be the last filtering system.
to visualise overall form of my design i sketched few perspective veiws
design concept
from the base concept 'step farm' for the basic form of the building i tried to develop the idea further by adopting bio mimicry concept.
every plants have their own root that absorb water and nutrient from the ground.
from the image of the root i tried to project it onto the building with simple shape by redrawing void space between roots and creating them into a usable space.
within those shapes there will be functions of water collection under timber decking(water), sky light that lead the sunlight into the building(nutrient) and greenery/farm area. and the roof top above very top floor will be covered with solar panels.
detail section
the image above is a rough detail section of indoor community farm area.
i tried to design each building low as but at the same time high enough for growing crops indoor to shape whole building with the existing contour levels.
my tutor advice me the space should be at least 5m with slab, beam, services and feature goes inside but by suing flat plate slab structure, without using beams to support the height of each level could reduce to 4.5m floor to floor and there will be at leas 3m-3.5m floor to ceiling on each floor. planning
space planning from the top to the bottom floor.
all floors functions are based on the week 11, it's been revised to suit new shape of the building and access to each floor.
lifts
are the main access to the top 2 floors and travelators are the main
access to the urban/community farm area where it can be seen from the
ground floor.
and as commercial farm is a private space it will be accessible by the lifts only.
ground floor is on latrobe tce level. which will be one of the main feature of the building 'fresh market' is placed.
above ground level will be more for social area.
upper 1st level is food court
upper 2nd level is cafe and library/research area
lower 1st and 2nd are urban farm for paddinfton community
lower 3rd is research centre.
upto lower 3rd floor will be public accessible
and lower 4th and 5th will be commercial area including crop and preparation area.
feed back
after i showed design from the very first concept to where i am now the main feed back from my tutor there were 3 major issues.
1st roof structure on the entry view is over whelming
2nd location of lift and stairs as primary circulation is not visible from the when approaching to the building.
3rd sense of activity from the ground level (outside of the fresh market) is missing.
and for the last it was suggested to soften the building with the similar concept(root and tree) i had through the building structure.
one of the best way to design a new building in paddington area without losing it's character, would be associating the character of existing typology into a new design.
the site itself is surrounded by a historical residential area and even the existing paddington central has a trace that it was designed to capture the view of the surrounding which was expressed on the facade. i think a good design is a harmonious design that fits into the site without disturbing the surrounding, especially the paddington area where has a history and character throughout residential area and shops along latrobe tce. and i tried to associate it with with the roof shape to keep the feeling of the atmosphere.
feed back the main feed back from my tutor was that i need to look at the design with human scale. and detail of how my design would work. for example, how high the ceiling/each level need to be? space for every area. without looking at human scale it would not work. - as my intention is to design an indoor farm area there should be a fairly large space and height to grow plants. as it was explained on week 10, the space will be only for ground grow plants/vegetables. as the space given is not enough to provide all different types of veges and fruits, i decided to look at the main vegetables that people mostly consume in everyday life. for example, potato, onion, capsicum, bean, herb, salad greens etc... so those veges can be specilised in paddington area. but high grow plants can be grown if they grows under 3m for example corn by user's choice.
as it was mensioned before there is a power problem to run the facility as it could use 8 times of electricity generated by all the power plants in US over a single
year to operate LED light constantly 24/7..
solution...? solar panel roofing
this might be the general idea of solar panel installation..
but would it be enough? it is still being under research to create more energy with same amount of solar panels..
solar panel wall cladding
another way of installing solar panels.
but i guess by installing panels on the wall the location of them would make big difference and would not get sun light as much as when they are on the roof...
new solar panel shape
a better way of generating 20 times more electricity of solar energy than normal flat solar pannel by using spining cone shaped panels calls V3 Solar has been developed and undergoing refinement currently..
this might be a way to solve the energy problem, as the facility may require lots of lightings and generater to operate the urban farm for temperature and commercial area.
but the question is, can this be installed anywhere such as sloped surface or vertically as well..?
simplified the shape and level to reflect site slope as previous design required more space and level drop.
6-7 level is suitable for the ground level drop and as it's not high even on the street level, it would not cast a shadow over the residential area.
above layout will be the basic pad layout on the private farm level.
ther user gets to choose and rent a pad site as many as they want and also it's their to choose from the pad types of tower or traditional type.
from the tower pad type, low height crops (such as herbs) can be grew on the layers on top of each other to use the land size efficiently.
made a concept model to visualise the form and area
floor layout following function of each floor.
ground-upper 2nd floor for public. - community & gathering space.
lower ground 1-2 - private farm
lower ground 3 - office and car park
lower ground 4-5 commercial farm
feed back and things to be considered
the existing building (paddington central), as i observed it, has a trace that the interior was designed to look like a street shop scape to incorporate with the surrounding character of paddington, however, the overall design of the building especially both side of the building with high blank walls that are facing the residential houses, was not considered the surrounding area.
therefore, throughout my design, it is required to consider how this will sit / fit within the surrounding area. such as will it merge into the site? or stand out?
how will it draw the movement of people into the building?
how space works through out the whole building? such as circulation or indication.
“Here’s my vision of what a vertical farm might look like. My gold
standard for this is the Apple Store in New York City on 5th Avenue,"
said Despommier. "If you took that building and made it into a
five-story building. Now in the building you have multiple floors, of
course, and inside each floor you have multiple layers of crops.”
it's a small research building comparing to other facilities in chicago or netherlands and they are looking at in 5 years of research the vertical farm would be commercialised.
downside..
power problem
as the main idea of vertical farm was to grow crops 24/7 with
constant light source and temperature it requires alot of electricity.
“The plant factory requires a lot of energy, the light energy and the
heating and cooling energy. So we provide the heating or cooling energy
using geothermal systems. We adopted the solar-cell system to provide
light source energies, but we are still [only] providing 15 percent of
the total energy,” said Choi.
the main source to replace the sunlight is the LEDs at
this stage of the research but it was calculated it would need 8 times
of electricity generated by all the power plants in US over a single
year as per the calculation from below link http://www.losingourcool.com/verticalnote.html#Note_on_calculations
another way to create natural energy required
PLANT LAB
Netherlands
this facility is one of the first urban farm facility produce vegetables commercially. while most of greenhouses use white light to grow the crops the engineers in netherlands founds that to grow crops, the dominant type of chlorophyll
in plants, only needs purple light to function.they grows veges by using red and blue LEDs to create purple light and cut the energy use to grow plants indoor.
downside..
it requires alot of energy to keep the LEDs and machinery running..
THE PLANT
Chicago
this is a urban farm facility refurbished from 87 years old meat packing factory.
it's not only commercial farm, but also it's a fish farm and beer brewery.
following the process by using feature in the building..
- plants filters water for fish
- fish creates ammonia and nitrates for plants which helps to clean the water
- plants produce oxygen for brewery
- brewery creates carbon dioxide which will be cleaned back to clean air from the plants.
they are looking to create over 100 jobs through this process where produce local fresh produce, fish and beer to the neighborhood with no waste.
as it's localised business it will also bring the community within.
this would be a good example creates no wastes from the facility but using them as a resource which would be the function i should look at!
VERTICAL FOREST SKY SCRAPPER _ residential building
Milan
this is a residential apartment under constrcution at the moment with the balcony on each floor designed to hold small trees and other plants that will cover an area of 10000m².
it would provide green view of outdoor space to each residents with benefits of..
filtering pollution
absorbing CO2 and dust particles
reducing noise pollution to the building
improving the microclimate
saving energy by sheltering the building from solar radiation in summer
reducing rainwater run-off so curbing flooding
downside..
it sounds a great idea to have own garden on the balcony of the high rise building but,
what if tree dies? how is it going to be removed and replaced?
maintenance? trim, vermin..?
if the tree grows up too high? and block the view?
this is an example of a basic system that most of urban farms(plant factory, plant lab and the plant) are using.
it's a system growing plants in water instead of soil. in that way it creates clean atmosphere and faster crop growing environment.
how the crop growing process creates the energy at the plant
biomass fed into
the anaerobic digester, The Plant produces electricity in
a combined heat and power system, as well the as the heat necessary for
the New Chicago Beer Company’s brewery. Recycling
the biomass will produce bio gas which will power a turbine generator
that will produce both electricity and steam. The steam will be used
for the heating and cooling systems of the building and the electricity
will be used to power, among other things, grow lights for the plants in
the aquaponic system.
possible CRISIS may effect in paddington district.
SOCIAL CRISIS
"In social place the meeting and free association of individuals from
various familial or social places are steadily decreasing, almost to
the effect of replacing the many of the grounds of physical contact."
- How Mobile Technology Causes Social Isolation, NI Wire
it's been about 5years we have used internet through mobile devices and most of young generations are uning the device for their main social networking. these are days it's creating a lack of communication between family members living under one roof and this happens over the country.
in next 10 years the mobile device generation will be the main members of the society who would have the relationship with other people mainly over the internet only, without physical interation.
there will be only a small numner of physical communities in the future.
WEATHER CRISIS / FOOD CRISIS
"grobal temperatures in the first half of the year were hottest since records began more than a century ago"
-the world's weather crisis
even though the total population of Australia does not
increase dramatically within 10 to 20 years, the population will migrate into urban centers
still. and it's easily predictable that the Paddington district will be
one of the place where the population density gets built up.
by 2030 young generation who used internet since they were small (approx. since year 2000),
that the internet is a huge part of their life just like sleeping &
eating etc... will occur indivisulalism in the family and lack of
societism and no more communities make the physical interaction between people.
grobal warming causes water shortage will be the main crisis in future that will hit on farming environment directly, and it will leads to the food crisis.
it is required to create a new method of food production within each districts/communities.
i believe it is required to build a community space where people get interact each other and gather in paddinton district so it does not loose it's character.
urban farm in paddington distrct will build up the strong community and will be the starting point of the new era of food production that will cope with the possible crisis in future.
how much of farmland need for one family?
as per the research it requires1acre (approx. 4045m2) to feed one family.
but concidering it's going to be a divided private farm with constant weather condition and light (no seasonal crops) it helps to grow crops 4 times faster. and it's not going to be a full time job.
1/8 acre (approx. 500m2) would be the max. area to feed one family.
also some part of the farm could be much smaller if the crops can be grown in stacked system.
types of crops can be grown? crops that require little area to grow
Mushrooms- agaricus, shiitake, oyster, morel, etc.
Onions (transplants, shallots, sweet, early)
Organically grown vegetables of all types
Oriental vegetables
Peas and pea shoots
Peppers - specialty types (purple, hot, etc.)
Pumpkins
Red beets
Salad greens - mesclun
Sprouts (alfalfa, bean, etc.)
Squash
Sweet corn
Sweet potatoes
Tomatoes - specialty types
Truffles
Wasabi
different types of crops grow in different temperature.
COOL TEMPERATURE Broccoli lettuce spinach carrot
Radishes
sweet peas
Turnip
WARM TERMPERATURE Beans Tomatoes Bell Peppers Zucchini
Pumpkin Potatoes
Lima bean plants
Pinto bean plants Egg plant Cucumber plants
Water melon vines
Cantaloupe
white & red onion
sweet potato vines
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
by following the slope with the idea of the step farm the building form fit in the existing topography of the site without casting shadow over residential area.
there will be indoor and outdoor farm area.
cafe/restaurant over looking the greenery.
design developed from the step farm idea building form as a folded shape with same function as previous idea. gives an idea of continuity of the building flowing down to the hill.
and another idea to maximise the sunlight even the building goes high with void space on the building to let the sun and wind pass through.
design development created too many floors and it ended up the floor is lower than the ground line.
as the contour drops down from 40 to 26 the building needs to have less floors than above sketch.. looking at about 4-5 floors to the highest level of the topography.
and +3 more floors can be added as the existing building is 2-3 floors high.
so the building could be 7-8 floors all together.
feed back |
after the check-up with the tutor, below points were raised up to think of..
* how much of products could be harvested in the facility..? then, will it be enough to provide to paddington area to run the fresh food market..?
- my answer would be 'No, i dont think it will be enough'.
i meant there may will not be 'enough' as in terms of many different kinds of produces by 2030 within the site area given. to fulfil / answer the question, it may require a bigger area to run the facility.
by 2030, i'm expecting this will be a facility to show the possibility and suggest a alternative way of producing.
as australia is the one of the country the urban farming has not been practiced, yet there are signs and evidence that water crisis could hit the country in near future which would lead to the food crisis as well.
but it will probably be enough for one kind of the produce as the facility runs 24/7 under constant light and temperature. the product line would be something like a factory where growing the products constantly.
as the normal markets will be replaced with online markets in future farmers would still need to sell their products physically still especially small farm owners. this would complete the main concept of the design, 'the facility where sells the fresh produce'.
* will people live trying to self sustain (farming) in future?
i think there is a big chance for that. globally urban farming is one of the issue these days firstly because of the inflation, secondly population growth creates food crisis (i don't think this will affect in australia..) and last, becuase of the water crisis as mensioned above.
people will NEED to self sustain.
but it is required to find a better way to fulfil the above and idea that creates a new / better way than present day.
why is it needed...?
it may not required to build a urban farm in Australia to prevent the food crisis of the country by 2030s.
but not just to create the food production, the urban farm also creates a community.
and it will be the step to cope with the crisis that will hit Australia oneday.
Advantages of Vertical Farming (http://ecosistemaurbano.org/english/the-vertical-farm/)
- Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor
acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor
acre = 30 outdoor acres);
- No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests;
- All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers;
- VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water;
- VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services;
- VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface;
- VF converts black and gray water into potable water by collecting the water of evapotranspiration;
- VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals;
- VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.);
- VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers;
- VF creates sustainable environments for urban centers;
- VF creates new employment opportunities;
- We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on earth;
- VF may prove to be useful for integrating into refugee camps;
- VF offers the promise of measurable economic improvement for tropical
and subtropical LDCs. If this should prove to be the case, then VF may
be a catalyst in helping to reduce or even reverse the population growth
of LDCs as they adopt urban agriculture as a strategy for sustainable
food production;
- VF could reduce the incidence of armed conflict over natural resources, such as water and land for agriculture.
to follow natural topography as the existing site is on the hill and try not to disturb the existing surrounding, especially height of the building,
step farm is the idea of the building shape.
stepping down building form
- will not cast a dramatic shadow over residential houses surrounding.
- able to fit in the site without disturbing existing character of paddington
design to consider
- building height facing latrobe tce not to be exceeded 3 floors to match existing condition
- floors to be stacked on top of each other following existing topography
- all public facilities to be accessed from street level
(fresh produce market, public farm, cafe, restaurant and carpark)
FUNCTION
FRESH MARKET street level
- fresh organic produce
- small pots of crops for public & private farmers
- interaction / gathering space
PUBLIC FARM street level
- private farm (big and small)
- indoor / outdoor
- interaction / community space
LIBRARY
- agriculture
-self sustain
CAFE/RESTAURANT
- food prepared with fresh produce from the farm
- gathering / community space
COMMERCIAL FARM
- commercial crop growing
- create jobs
- community
RESEARCH FACILITY
- provide healthy seeds to farm users and public
- fresh fruits and veges
- energy efficiency
- GYO (grow your own) class
- excursion for school students and small groups.
WATER / WASTE RECYCLE
- rain / grey water filtering system and storage
- food wastes from the restaurants and cafe surrounding reused.
*waste as compost and methane to run the power
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- feed back
to design an urban farm there are still to be consider...
* how much of land needed for public farm?
* if commercial farm is required how much of space for whom?
* what types of crops can be grown here?
and the main concern of my tutor was if the urban farm is required in paddington area, and if there is an urban farm will it be big enough to provide to everyone in paddington area?
