The term "sustainability" has been the topic of the various design professions for the past two decades, but now there is a new term or idea that is coming to light. The idea of resiliency. There is a lot of literature coming out in the future about this. When I first heard this term, I thought about how this word is actually more suitable for describing certain aspects of environmentally efficient design and practices within communities. Urban farming is one activity that has and will continue to be a cornerstone of community development and environmental literacy. New York City has had its share of small organizations that have realized this. One very interesting example is WORK Architecture Company's design of PS 1 in New York. This functional urban farm is located at a public school, where children are educated and food is grown. This is an excellent example of how intelligent architectural design and environmentally resilient thought processes can be put on display for the public, and more importantly for youth. This design was released in June of 2008.
With urban farming, like the one pictured, who exactly "owns" the crops? In other words, who directly benefits from the projects? Does PS-1 sell the crops for profit, use it for their own school, or give to charity?
ReplyDeleteTo my knowledge and from what i have read, the school uses the veggies that they produce. However, they also give them out for community use. check this article out for an example of how the food has been used to benefit the public...
ReplyDeletehttp://newyork.seriouseats.com/tags/P.S.1
Other Urban farms are in the process of being constructed or financed by WORK Architecture in Queens. I am posting another link to that project as well. The combination of the forms modern architecture and the function of urban farming is becoming increasingly popular around the globe, and for good reason. Spread the word, the bronx could use some of these.
http://curbed.com/archives/2008/02/19/more_insane_public_art_ps1s_urban_farm_in_lic.php
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