edible wurer | rural urban transformation with metabolism based planning strategies
design isometric perspective by Anastasija Djukic and myself
:: Design Studio_ 2nd semester of my Integrated Urban Development and Design Master Degree at Bauhaus.
:: Work done together with Eva Beham and Anastasija Djukic.
:: The design was developed in Rhino + Grasshopper + C#, aiming to create an adaptive model for a self sustained city.
Today the world faces a crisis in the food provision system. Environmental degradation through monocultures and deforestation, together with problems of food injustice, high rates of food waste and a failing agriculture system create a huge urban-rural challenge. In this light, how would a city which provides a healthy and sustainable food system look like? Using Wurer, Ethiopia, as a case study, we propose a design with merged housing and food production typologies allowing a smaller and more sustainable production, and enhancing the reuse of resources and clustering the production and the consumer sources. The design relies on the combination of parametric design models and urban metabolism concepts as its core approach.
concept by Eva Beham
Diagram of our planning strategy for an urban-metabolism based transformation.
:: Background and goal
As agriculture was the first reason for humans to settle, food production in history also shaped the way our cities look like. But today we find the world's food provision systems in a crisis. Environmental degradation through monocultures, pesticides, deforestation and long transport routes, together with problems of food injustice, high rates of food waste and the unproductivity of intensive industrial cultivation make the established agricultural system questionable. Facing the global challenge of a rising global population and the scarcity of resources, this project focuses on the question of how a sustainable and healthy food provision system could look like, that can feed a whole city and how it would shape its form.
The goal is to create a model of a circular self sustained city system, that respects nature and enhances human settlement at the same time. In the case of Wurer in Ethiopia this model is tested and aims to be applicable to other places. Therefore we researched existing alternative typologies that allow a more sustainable form of agriculture and applied them to the scale of a city for up to 10000 inhabitants. The spatial demands for agriculture and the needed facilities of a city were questioned and rethought. By analysing and understanding the existing urban patterns of the project area we aim to connect and build on their potentials. By not only closing loops but also making the metabolism system of a self sufficient cities supply and waste disposal chains tangible it should be understood and therefore carried by each inhabitant.
Landuse plan for a 10k people city.
:: Planning Strategy
A promising way of sustainable food production is agriculture following the principles of permaculture, which basically describes “a set of decision-making tools, based on natural systems, for arriving at regenerative solutions to design challenges of all kinds”, as in this case for a city. For the planning concept of Wurer we extracted three main principles of permaculture philosophy: Using and valuing diversity - in a city scale meaning a diversity of typologies of agriculture, housing, functions and energy sources - lead to greater resilience. Supporting integration in the form of building synergies between different functions makes the system more efficient. Enhancing self-regulation and accepting feedback means in the city scale to allow informal and experimental development as a chance for improvements.
Translating this idea spatially, we rethink the shape of a city and the spatial distribution of its different land uses. As we want to support a place that enhances nature and human settlement both at the same time we also start the development of the place from both sides. On one side existing nature is protected and expanded by reforestation. The location of the sustainable cultivation methods of agroforestry and silvopasture are planed adjoining to the existing forest. From the other, human side existing structures are supplemented by missing facilities. A central replicable hub clusters the main resources to be distributed throughout the city, commercial nodes are rooted in denser housing areas and processing units with composting stations are closer to the bigger agricultural farmlands. This combination together with walkability and accessibility design standards allow both natural and human developments to mingle and grow together, also facilitating interaction and meeting points.
This project aims to create a edible city, where agriculture and food production happens inside its boundaries and thereby close to the consumer, making metabolism tangible and keeping routes of transport short. In this way, not only the citizens are close to what they eat, but the metabolism loop is closed, as waste is also considereded a useful source in the food production chain. Overall the interwining of human and natural area aims to create a healthy urban ecology.
Growth scenarios strategy.
Growth scenarios in each population stage.
:: Application
The pre-application phase starts with a detailed analysis of the existing urban patterns, understanding living conditions of the inhabitants and the relationships between different functions of land. We observe land sizes and usage and calculate approximate numbers of inhabitants and products they consume and also their demand for water and energy. By analyzing the existing street network, we locate the most central point between existing social centers. This location sets the starting point for our development. Our central hub, composed by a communal wash house with a well for drinking water is established, combined with a permaculture garden, that recycles the grey water. This facility offers a meeting point for the locals and a learning and experimenting place about innovative agricultural practices. Later it will be updated by micro anaerobic digestion units, recycling compost, generating energy and fertilizer. The distribution of the other land uses than take place following the already mentioned detailed planning strategy.
The growth scenarios show different possibilities of locating the starting point and the way the city could expand, mainly focusing on the choice of appropriation of vacant land or already producing land and how these changes affect also the forestation system. By testing this combination in the nine scenarios, sustainability-wise we conclude that starting a new development in the vacant land implies having the support of the existing agricultural production but transform an untouched natural land in built environment. It also implies ignoring the existing water and energy systems already supplying the existing structures. Starting from the current settlements suggests interrupting the ongoing agricultural production and leaving this chain open until the new structures start to produce. But at the same time allows appropriation of the water network for irrigation and household supply. This approach also requires the destruction of the forestation ring around the current households. When it comes to land consumption all the options would require more or less the same amount, varying the density established in our simulations.
Video explanation of the design