Desinging for Urban Food

Designing for Urban Food

As a promoter of urban gardens (horti urbani), I was drawn to this event. Designing for Urban Food examined how urban agriculture can shape and change urban design and the urban setting itself.  

Gatherers

 Designing for Urban Food forum was created by a group of University of Washington College of Built Environment students who hoped to illuminate the connection between Seattle's vibrant food movement and the structural design world. This event was also inspired by the Mayor McGinn's "Year of Urban Agriculture" as well as by community initiatives all over the city at the grassroots level that aim to bring urban farming into the city structure.

Thursday April 15 2010

Interdisciplinary Panel

Scholars and Designers from various parts of the Northwest were brought together for a healthy discussion about the place of farming in an urban setting.  Panel members included several UW College of Built Environment professors (architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning) as well as designers practicing in the field.  Each participant gave a brief presentation before the general panel discussion began, and the floor was opened to questions from the audience.

Rendering of possible design for urban food: each resident tends his or her own garden plot while a

common path runs through the entire garden to encourage community interaction

Balcony gardens and communal greenhouses in the residence; large community garden in front

Benefits of Urban Agriculture

The presentations and panel follow-up strove to answer the question "what are the overarching benefits of urban food production and how can the design field play a role in its encouragement and success?"  Here is what I took away from the presentations and panel discussion:

Designing for urban food is not meant as a means to replace farms or even feed a majority of a given city's population (though there was a heated debate over how productive an urban farm can really be once companion planting and season extension are added to the mix).  The point of urban agriculture is not about quantity but rather about quality.  Fresh, local food could benefit all urban residents, in monetary costs but more importantly, in social, structural and environmental issues.  With each urban garden there is the possibility of understanding food and nutrition and with each new design, incorporating communal gardening spaces, the possibility of a new form of social community is being created. 

Friday April 17, 2010

Charrettes

The day long Friday session (fueled by donations of local food) allowed interested persons to gather and brainstorm.  The organizers set up several actual sites around the city that could be redesigned to include a space for urban agriculture.  Then, with tracing paper in hand, visitors were encouraged to redesign the sites.  Some people spent ten minutes on the entire process and some stayed for hours, perfecting their design.  The finished product was then hung around UW's Gould Hall. 

The result of the charrette exercise will not be an immediate application of ideas but it was a means to bring the community of Seattleites for urban food together. Connections and networking were a productive result of the exercise, as well as the recognition that with a little imagination, urban spaces could be transformed into attractive and innovative buildings and urban plans, overflowing with food.

Get Involved

One of the best reminders of the two day event was how important (and easy) it is to just get involved.  There are many levels of commitment and the urban food initiative is happening in neighborhoods all over the city.  Here are a few places to start:

"Year of Urban Agriculture"

~promoting community agriculture efforts and increased access to locally grown food

Spring into Bed: Seattle's Food Revolution Celebration

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Designing for Urban Food Website

Rendering credits:

Created by architecture student Zachary Stevenson for a studio class entitled "Vertical Farming and Sustainable Site Design"

April Blooms

Early Spring Flowers

It has been a long winter and a blustery early spring in the Northwest but flowers continue to pop up all around the city.  Daffodils are starting to close and fade and but these new blooms are next in line.

Iberis sempervirens

Iberis sempervirens, also called "candytuft" is an evergreen subshrub (low to the ground) that produces a blanket of bright white flowers in April and May.  Iberis sempervirens is a perennial in the brassicaceae family (along with cabbage, broccoli and kale).

Rosemary

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) thrives in the maritime Northwest.  Its evergreen sprigs can add culinary flavor all year but its purple flowers only emerge in the spring.  They are also edible and can have a more pungent flavor than the leaves. 

Tulips

April is the time to find tulips bursting from all over the city.  Like daffodils, these perennials stand alone and add great color and diversity to your garden.  There are many varieties of these bright flowers and they can be recognized by their upright stance and bloom time.  Originating inTurkey, the name tulip derives from the Turkish word for turban (tulbend) and according to legend, tulip may have been passed along through a mistake in translation made by a Flemish diplomat in the 1550s.

Bergenia

 

The evergreen bergenia produces pink or white flowers in early spring.  Bergenia is native to Asia but is now commonly found in the U.S.  This perennial is also called elephant ears or pigsqueak (referring to the sound the leaves make when rubbed together).

Euphorbia

Euphorbia blooms in early spring with a large round cluster of lime green flowers.  Euphorbia is part of the Euphorbiaceae family (the poinsettia is another famous member of this family).  It's a good idea to prune back euphorbia plants as soon as these blooms fade.

Photinia

Photinia is a genus of plants in the Rosaceae family (rose).  Pictured above is the variety 'Red Robin' which is dense and evergreen and is known for its red colored new growth.  The new growth will turn green as it matures and white flowers will appear later in the spring.

Early Oriental Poppy

The beautiful Oriental Poppy doesn't usually arrive this early in the season but it's a reminder of what's to come in the early summer.  It's a perennial flower in the Papaveraceae family, originating in Asia.

Unique Cherry Blossom

Look closely at this cherry blossom to find both white and pink flowers!  It is a white flowering tree with a grafted pink flowering branch (there is an unpictured tree beside this one that is entirely pink).

The rightmost branch is the grafted section

For comparison, here is a picture of a newly grafted apple tree (using wax and plastic).  This is what the beginning of the cherry blossom graft might have looked like.

Resources

Tulip 'Juan'

The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers

Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners

Ask Cisco by Cisco Morris

The Bountiful Container by McGee and Stuckey