Landscape and Urban design portfolio

Meike Lei

2016-2024

01/2022-06/2022

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

[CHANGES IN THE DIET]

when I look into this history, I find that the potato has undergone several radical changes in the British diet. They were cooked with different ingredients, made into different dishes, and then eaten by different people. Each period has its own characteristics.

In the first period, spices were an important ingredient in potato dishes, as the nobility were the main potato eaters of this period, and for them the potato was a valuable alternative to the turnip.

In the second phase, soup was the predominant potato dish, as large numbers of poor people began to consume potatoes, and they were more concerned with the satiety potatoes provided.

In the third period, the potato was promoted and as a result many new potato dishes were created to serve the middle class. The poor and the rich had different attitudes towards potatoes.

The development of the food processing industry at the beginning of the 20th century once again changed the type of potato dish.

Eighty years ago, the shopping cart of an average British family would have been filled with fresh and nutritious foods such as white bread, animal offal and ham salad. Now, shopping carts are dominated by chips, pizza and other fast food items.

Modern eating habits have changed dramatically.

Potatoes are still the most popular vegetable in the UK. However, it should not be overlooked that sales of fresh potatoes have been declining, in contrast to the steady increase in sales of processed potatoes, which have been outstripping those of fresh potatoes.

THE DIET]

The power of capital was behind the cultivation of potatoes and the change in diet. In the early 17th century, potatoes were grown on a small scale in the gardens of the nobility. At this time, although unloved, the potato still symbolised the wealth of the aristocracy. Later on, the aristocracy once loathed potatoes because they were food for the poor. Now, however, the potato has been transferred to open farmland and is produced on a large scale by agricultural machinery, and the potato has become a global food. The new food trend is the growing popularity of processed food, a trend started by food processors through the press and television, who are gradually making people change their eating habits.

For a large farm, a lot of machinery and fertiliser is a must. Preparing for the planting stage requires plowing and turning the soil, using a stone separator to separate the stones from the soil.

Beat the potatoes so finely as not to be discovered what they are.

Potatoes to me were associated with backwardness and uneconomic practices

What a treasure is a milch cow and a potato garden, to a poor man with a large family!

Farmers and consumers have been kidnapped by the modern superfood system. Starting from seeds, farmers have fallen into the trap of monopoly.

Potatoes are collected with a harvester and graded by machine, and small or damaged potatoes are removed along with the loose soil. The harvested potatoes are stored in special warehouses, and the temperature, airflow, and air quality are strictly controlled.

In today's globalised world food has become a dangerous weapon controlled by the giant multinational food companies. They spread over the world, plunder global resources and control 90% of the global food trade. They use free trade to oppress countries in the world's South, destroy local food systems and drive out indigenous farmers.

A food system dominated by capital has led to a number of problems. Countries in the world's South are being plundered and indigenous farmers are being driven out. A profit-first food system has led to unnecessary waste and harm to the soil.

While researching potatoes in the UK I found Pembrokeshire to be a place full of potential. These conditions show that there are already government and private forces helping potato farmers here and that the special potato can be a source of a new food culture.

The Welsh Government is planning to build a food park on a 23 hectare site. They intend to serve local small businesses by creating an industrial park that will allow them to produce and process their own food.

It's an amazing fact that in the UK we have 500 varieties of potatoes, but you can only buy the most common ones in supermarkets. The figures from the AHDB also prove that the maris pipper is grown on far more acreage than the second place. This suggests that even when targeting cash crops, farmers have a single option.

Boxelders and scotch rose act as windbreaks. The bio-swales in the field create an underground reservoir which could attract microorganisms and make the soil more active and fertile. The compost mounds are at the edge of the field. The companion plants act as natural insecticides for the potatoes. Natsurtiums attract insects that are beneficial to the potatoes, basil and parsley dose not compete with the potatoes, garlic and horseradish repel pests. The wood board shows what dishes can be made from the plants in the field.

Unlike industrial potato fields where only potatoes are grown, these companion plants make for a lively and colourful farmland landscape that changes with the seasons.

22/11/2021-13/12/2021

RARE EARTH MATERIALS

Driving to work, working with documents on the computer and relaxing on the phone in our spare time. This is a day in the life of an ordinary person, and most of us would not realise that our ordinary day would be associated with rare earth elements from distant Greenland.

TUTOR

José Alfredo Ramìrez

TEAM

Chenxu Chen, Jaxin Mu, Yaqi Xu, Zilin Ye

Rare earth materials are widely used in human life.

REE mines, deposits, occurences

REE reserve significant deposits

REE rich areas

Comparison of crustal abundance and global production of the elements

[NARSAQ TOWN]

Narsaq town faces a number of problems. The total population here has been declining for 30 years. Local people depend on the fishing industry but are unable to become economically independent thus the Danish government subsidises the finances every year. Even so, the income of local farmers is still well below the average European farmer's income. The mono-agricultural economy has driven young people away, which has also led to an ageing local population and a high suicide rate.

After rare earth minerals have been mined in Greenland by countries such as the UK, USA and Canada, Greenland exports them to China for separation, which in turn exports them to the world.

Rare earths from Greenland are separated at a plant in southern China and shipped to Beijing to be made into neodymium magnets. The magnets are sent to the Tesla factory in Shanghai and the finished Tesla will be sold throughout China and to overseas countries such as Germany and Italy.

[SOHO HISTORY]

Soho has gone through several changes in its positioning in London, with peasants, aristocrats, artisans, prostitutes, artists, all having been protagonists of the area.

Once farmland, Soho was developed into a royal park by Henry VIII in 1536, and the first building, the mansion of the Earl of Leicester, appeared in Leicester Square after the Great Fire of London in 1666.

From the 18th century onwards, a large number of artists, writers, Bohemians and immigrants moved in, mostly Huguenots fleeing France. Soho became London's new entertainment centre, with brothels and prostitutes, and crime became rampant.

For much of the 20th century, Soho was known as a base for the sex industry in addition to its nightlife and entertainment.

The land around Soho was then used by the wealthy as a hunting ground. Councillors began to build homes in Soho, developing buildings for the upper classes of the time.

It was not until 1854 that a

Since the 1980s, the area has undergone a considerable upscaling. However, there are still a large number of restaurants and bars and nightclubs, and a small number of sex industry establishments remain.

major cholera broke out in London and most of the aristocracy moved out of Soho.

TUTOR Eduardo Rico

Yechun Weng, Yinhua Fan, Yizhuo Xie

TEAM

Over the years, soho has become one of London's busiest areas. Over 500 restaurants are located throughout soho, attracting large crowds to the area, while 200 bars and 35 nightclubs keep soho active until the early hours of the morning.

The website provides a design platform where users involved in the project can drag and drop facilities from the menu on the right to the interface on the left to design their ideal noise reduction park.

A pop-up window on the website informs users of design examples and the effectiveness of various noise reduction facilities. Users can click on the sound button to simulate a noisy scene. The website analysis allows the noise reduction effect of this set of solutions to be derived and adjusted at any time.

Users can see an analysis of the proposals of all project participants. They could know their preference for noise reduction materials and their requirements for the park.

There will be a pop-up reminding users of the time and place of the offline meeting, which they can volunteer to attend. They can work together to drag noise reduction materials to design the park.Everyone can leave a comment to discuss.

Once the collaborative design is complete, the site analyses the proposal and gives the most preferred facilities for all participants and a word cloud of user requirements, and professional designers make suggestions to help the user complete the design.

After the project sound sponge, more and more parks will be built in the noisiest parts of soho, then people's revelry is shifted from the bars and streets to the parks. At weekends, these parks will be turned into temporary dining bars where patrons can enjoy themselves without disturbing the residents.

OTHER WORKS

Model of a historical block

Rendering of a historic preservation neighbourhood

2019

2020

Traditional Chinese Architecture Mapping Practice

Landscape design project in Shenzhen 2018

2020

The real gate and my manuscript