Amphibious Architecture

Somewhat related to the concept of global climate change that will potentially innudate significant portions of urban areas (or maybe just a way to deal with growing land prices) the idea of inhabiting floating barges or houseboats is both new and old. I first heard the term amphibious architecture in reference to Dutch developments that float from shorelines to extend living areas beyond terra firma.


:: Dutch Amphibious Architecture - image via Speigel Online

A range of ideas around this has been covered before (such as the Garden Barges of London), as well as some inventive ways of looking at amphibious solutions. One covered here before is Das Schwimmhausboot, a mod- looking houseboat featured again recently on Treehugger.


:: image via Treehugger

Another interesting example via Treehugger is Waterpod "...a floating eco-habitat that recalls the work of Buckminster Fuller, Andrea Zittel, and Constant Nieuwenhuis." It is designed to be a completely self-sustaining community" Read more at this NY Times article on the project as well.


:: image via Treehugger


:: image via City Farmer News

Another method for this idea is the more artistic, such as this post from Inhabitat that features 'Junk Rafts'. "Brooklyn-based street artist, SWOON is in the midst of launching her third fleet of “junk rafts” — crafted from construction site cast-offs and recycled scraps, these eclectic floats are a cross between a stage-ship and art-raft. These ships are envisioned, by SWOON, as a manifestation of “bits of land broken off and headed to sea.”




:: images via Inhabitat

Finally, to ground the idea, there is a long historical precedent for this, as shown in a post from Strange Harvest about the Floating Church of the Redeemer, Philadelphia, 1847. I all comes full circle.


:: image via Strange Harvest

Yard Sharing

An article in today's Oregonian has a bevy of local resources for one of the cooler trends of the urban agricultural movement, garden sharing, "... a trend that appears to be spreading roots across the metro area as apartment dwellers and landowners, strangers and neighbors unite to grow their food at a time when seed sales are up and the economy down. Here's how it works: Everyone contributes what they can, whether it's land or labor, money or skill, and everyone shares in the bounty."


:: image via OregonLive

The resources are amazing, including some of the following for those to check out locally or emulate in other places:

:: Portland Yard Sharing
:: The Dirt
:: City Garden Farms
:: Portland Fruit Tree Project
:: VeggieTrader
:: Portland Area CSA Coalition
:: Portland Community Gardens

One resource absent from this list was featured previously on L+U, Your Backyard Farmer, which uses land and provides gardening services of local lands in a similar fashion, for those who have space and want some bounty. Another national network mentioned is Hyperlocavore, a network for Yard Sharing around the country.

Good stuff... anyone know of some other local resources, give a shout.

Urban Chickens Build - 2

A summation of days 2 & 3 of the experiment in urban chickens... with the final form framed out and the interior in place, ready for roof framing and plywood, and eventually ecoroof and siding. Should be habitable by this weekend...


:: 2 walls down...


:: and 3...


:: and four...


:: framing the interior


:: exterior view of laying boxes for easy access to eggs


:: ...and the interior with safety rail and access step

The form has also given the structure a suitable name, now known as the 'Chicken Cube' (trademark pending... :). Fitting, no?




:: the sun, and the chicken cube emerges

Urban Chickens Build - 1

After a lovely weekend day spent rounding up materials for the Experiment in Urban Chickens, I spent Monday putting together the foundation, floor and starting to frame out the walls... some pics.

:: my trusty helper Ginger inspecting the building pad

:: finished and level base to keep the chickens off the ground

:: the coop will break down into pieces for moving, t-plate to attach them together

:: the floor plate goes on, ready for framing

:: racing against an impeding thunderstorm, the first wall goes up

Re:Vision Dallas = Vertical Green

The annoucement of three winners for the Re:Vision Dallas Competition on Bustler was telling in some of the interesting forms, and the consistency of veg.itecture as a vital building element - particularly the use of roof and walls faces for environmental, aesthetic, and productive means. Check out the full array of info and pics on Bustler's excellent site... and as a teaser, here's a few pics of the winners:

Forwarding Dallas
Atelier Data & MOOV (Lisbon, Portugal)






:: images via Bustler

Entangled Bank
Little (Charlotte, North Carolina)

:: images via Bustler

Greenways Xero Energy
David Baker and Partners Architects and Fletcher Studio (San Francisco, California)

:: images via

Bustler

It's interesting to see the different ways that a competition will push boundaries, particularly when you apply these to a specific site and/or program. Again, these are all visions (or re:visions) so there are some practicalities as play, but that's the key difference between competition and project - the lines are less distinct and the urge to color outside them is part of the fun.

Horizontal v. Vertical Farming

As a continuation of a common recent theme, Treehugger offers some additional questions, as well as a really cool example of a horizontal farm - The Zuidkas, by Architectenbureau Paul de Ruiter from the Netherlands. The post makes the case for horizontal vs. vertical farming as perhaps a more realistic opportunity for integrated urban agriculture. Using rooftop greenhouses, along with captured waste heat from buildings, shortening the distance from food to fork and incorporating mixed use into the buildings.




:: images via Treehugger

This decentralized method seems to make sense, although it'd be interesting to see if you could actually grow enough food to sustain the residents of the building using just the available rooftop area. Thus the hybrid between terrestrial farms and intensive vertical farms in one location may be hundreds and thousands of these interventions... and the good thing, the concept, albeit stylized here, could be pragmatically retrofitted to buildings (in the Zabar's model from NYC).




:: images via Treehugger

Some info about the interesting opportunities for closed loop systems that use building inputs and outputs: "The design includes a glass shell that covers the configuration of the ground level and naves, creating a variety of climate buffers, that will work as an intermediate zone that naturally tempers the effects of the outside climate. The shell surrounding the building strongly reduces the surface area responsible for the loss of heat during the winter and cold during the summer. The buffer area facing south functions as a sun lounge for the homes. Thanks to the buffer effect, the loss of heat in the winter is reduced. In the summer, the sun lounge cools the adjacent areas thanks to the stack effect. In this process, fresh air is sucked in and constantly circulated. It will be possible to open the exterior shell, to prevent the area behind the shell from becoming too hot."



Some more images from the De Zuidkas site, along with additional information.






:: images via De Zuidkas

I'm not saying this is a panacea as well - just a good looking and functionally viable of the concept in theory. The point is not to say that vertical farms don't have merit, but I like the well-rounded discussion of urban agriculture that includes full buildings, rooftops, walls, vacant lots, backyards, community gardens - the entire fabric. Feeding people in urban areas, and reducing the distance from food to fork requires integrated planning, design, and implementation. Let's keep that conversation going...!

Experiment in Urban Chickens

I've posted before about the preponderance of urban chickens (especially in Portland) - and I just had to share the plans we have for our deluxe urban eco-coop in the back yard... (now if I could just register for LEED with this... :) I'll post some progress pics as is goes together... for now some Sketchup.










:: images via L+U

While Sketchup is great for visualization, it was actually a great exercise to build this - every stick is accounted for, and generate a materials list - definitely a good way to try out the design and some of the framing, materials, and color beforehand... as well as the spatial arrangement for the chicken abode.






:: images via L+U

DeWinging: Dragonfly

Ok, let me start off by saying I'm a big fan of wildly speculative work that pushes the boundaries of thought and expands the thinking of our urban spaces and landscapes. That said, I'm started to chafe at the preponderance of overwrought schemes flown about under the guise of skyscraper or vertical farming (previously discussed here, here, and here). It seems as a fashion du jour, anything goes both stylistically and fantastically, and has recently spawned a new species - the Dragonfly - by Vincent Callebaut Architects which if you've been hibernating, or out working in the garden like myself, you've spotted on no fewer than a dozen blogs in the last couple of weeks. So here's my half-hearted rant against the inevitable (given with a grain of salt, or maybe a sprinkle of slow-release organic fertilizer).


:: image via Inhabitat

Ok, maybe it's not fair, but I despise this building... for starters, it's ugly as hell (even for a future new york). Second, it's derivative biomimicry hidden behind flashy graphics and some equally derivative text: Some of the derivation, via Arch Daily: "The metal and glass wings, directly inspired by the exoskeleton of a dragonfly, house the plant and animal farms. Due to the appropriate sun and wind conditions within these wings, proper soil nutrient levels can be achieved to maximize plant growth. Exterior vertical gardens filter rain water, and once that water is mixed with domestic liquid waste, both are treated organically in order to be reused for farming needs."


:: image via Inhabitat

The building is essentially sci-fi, so is specifically framed as a futuristic technology that I guess the world isn't quite ready for. Materially, it's got some cool imagery, specifically the derivatives from Dragonfly biology - although I'm not quite sure how this particular insect is the optimal housing for


:: image via Clean Air Through Green Roofs




:: images via Arch Daily

I think it's best put on Inhabitat, as a utopian superstructure, which as I mentioned is fine fodder for the vision, but needs a bit of grounding in some form of reality. So there is some valid research that proves, in theory, that the foundations of vertical farming are solid. It seems, to pardon the puns, that we continue to look for a chicken prior to the egg, and firmly put the cart before the horse in the visualization of schemes with little reality to back them up. One good example of this technology in action, even a somewhat homely and utilitarian one, to prove the technology and cost-effectiveness is all I'm asking for.

In response to the Dragonfly and many of the other over-glamourized examples, I offer some reality (let's call it literally grounded) from Vulgare, by artist Helmut Dick, for an installation entitled 'Lettuce Field as Big as a Skyscraper Building': "10,000 lettuces were grown right beside a sky scraper, on a 1200m² field which is as big as the façade of the building. After a growing period of 5 weeks the salad heads were ready for harvest. These were given to the local inhabitants during the one week harvest period." Call it the anti-vertical farm...




:: images via Vulgare