171201 thesisbook william manley

|RE|inventing Detroit’s Identity An Agricultural Future

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Architecture Department in Partial Fullfillment of the Requirements for the Professional Masters Degree in Architecture at The Savannah College of Arts and Design

William G Manley IV Savannah, GA May 2017 Š Month and Year of submission

Hsu-Jen Huang | Commitee Chair Arpad Ronaszegi | Commitee Member Natalie Aiken | Commitee Member

DEDICATION To My parents_ Mom. Dad.... I made it. That little boy that told you at the age of 10 that he wanted to become an architect has made one major step closer to fulfilling that goal. against all odd and doctors diagnoses I have succeeded and the main reason is because of your love and dedication to helping me succeed. I have no idea how I could have ever done this without you. Designing 1,000 houses for you wouldn’t be enough to thank you. Love you both always.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication

2|3 Lot Vacancies and Abandonment in Detroit

Table of Contents

2|4 The Climate of Detroit

List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 3: Introduction Of Urban Agriculture 3|1 disconnect between Farming and Urbanism

1|1 Arguable Position

3|2 Problems with Food Production

1|2 Design Objectives

3|3 Ways of Implementing Urban Agriculture

1|3 Where?

3|4 Feasible Agricultural Options (What can be grown)

1|4 Research Approaches

3|5 Agriculture as a way of building a communi ty

1|5 The What | Program Chapter 2: Greater Detroit Urban Landscape

Chapter 4: |RE| inventing Detroit 4|1 Agriculture Brought Closer to Consumption (benefits)

2|1 Detroit: An Industrial History

4|2 “Sustainable Infill� (define as a basis for the solution)

2|2 Problems? (Crime, Poverty, Land Use)

4|3 Agriculture and Urbanism Merge

4|4 Navigating Detroit’s Extreme Climate Chapter 5: The Building 5|1 Formal Study and Strategy 5|2 Programatic Strategy 5|3 The Tower 5|4 Grow Options 5|5 Architectural Drawings 5|6 Facade Construction + Function

LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER 1 Fig | 1 Detroit ruin

p. 10

http://bit.ly/2saAV90

Fig | 2 Detroit aerial

p. 11

http://bit.ly/2qCuvgT

Fig | 3 Urban farm

p.13

http://bit.ly/2qy5GDw

p.18 p.18 p.22 p.23

Google Maps

Fig | 8 Michigan hardiness zones

p.24

http://bit.ly/2qCDEG7

Fig | 9 Seasonal crop grow chart

p.25

http://bit.ly/2qwqL5a

Fig | 11 Farming issues http://bit.ly/2qwuRui

p.33

Fig | 16 Production cycle

p.35

Fig | 17 Community farming

p.37

CHAPERT 4 Fig | 18 Detroit Aerial

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http://bit.ly/2qCuvgT

Fig | 19 Traditional retail structure

p.44

http://bit.ly/2rgv6qu

Fig | 20 CropvValue Per state (Midwest, USA)

p.44

By Author

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http://bit.ly/2qCTHUq

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http://bit.ly/2rgHhn2

1

p.32

http://bit.ly/2qwCAs7

Fig | 21 Row farming

CHAPTER 3 Fig | 10 Pesticide farming

Fig | 14 Aquaponics

http://bit.ly/2rBqqhE

http://bit.ly/2si5Rn1

Fig | 7 Common Residential Block

p.32

http://bit.ly/2sagDMH

By Author

http://bit.ly/2rge7ok

Fig | 6 Percent on vacant lots

Fig | 13 Hydroponics

By Author

http://bit.ly/2siaP30

Fig | 5 Detroit’s car industry

p.32

http://bit.ly/2saOcOW

Fig | 15 Agricultural “dead months”

CHAPTER 2 Fig | 4 Detroit’s car industry

Fig | 12 Traditional farming method

Fig | 22 Farmers per 1000 people (Midwest, USA)

p.45

By Author

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Fig | 23 Farmers per 1000 people (Michigan, USA)

By Author

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Fig | 24 Farmers in ajor US cities

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By Author

Fig | 25 Problems in Detroit

p.50 p.51 p.52 p.53 p.54 p.55

ig | 32 Hiedelberg Project

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Fig | 42 Local restaurant

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Fig | 43 Local business

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Fig | 44 Local Business

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Fig | 45 Winter wind rose

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Fig | 46 Summer wind rose

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By Author

Fig | 34 Building age map p.56

CHAPTER 5

By Author

Fig | 47 Site Plan p.57

Fig | 48 Formal study iterations

Fig | 36 Foreclosure and at-risk properties (2010)

By Author

p.57

p.68

By Author

http://bit.ly/2rBb24U

By Author

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http://bit.ly/2qD823e

Fig | 35 Foreclosed Building

Fig | 41 Eastern Market farmers market

http://bit.ly/2rRJ3xT

http://bit.ly/2rBjNfz

Fig | 33 Abandoned house

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http://bit.ly/2saGG6i

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Fig | 42 Existing site programs

http://bit.ly/2qCJcQZ

http://bit.ly/2qCFAOV

Fig | 31 Demolitions

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http://bit.ly/2qwtz2k

By Author

Fig | 30 Detroit Ruin

Fig | 39 Project phases

By Author

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Fig | 29 Current Planned development Strategies by the city

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By Author (google maps)

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Fig | 28 Current Programmatic breakdown (City)

Fig | 38 Site Dimensions

By Author (google maps)

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Fig | 27 Problem + Solution

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By Author (google maps)

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Fig | 26 Solutions to the problems

Fig | 37 Site location from city center

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Fig | 49 Final Formal Strategy

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By Author

Fig | 50 Research center programmatic breakdown

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Fig | 65 South elevations Fig | 66 Orb detail + water drainage

Fig | 68 East corner

Fig | 57 Level 4 Floor Plan

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Fig | 69 Entrance

Fig | 58 Level 5 Floor Plan

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Fig | 70 North corner

Fig | 59 Level 6 Floor Plan

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Fig | 71 Lobby p.85

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Fig | 60 Section A

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CONCLUSION Fig | 67 Greenhouse

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Fig | 64 North elevations

By Author

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Fig | 56 Level 3 Floor Plan

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Fig | 55 Level 2 Floor Plan

Fig | 63 Faรงade construction detail

By Author

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Fig | 54 Level 1 Floor Plans

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Fig | 53 Tower usage diagram

Fig | 62 Faรงade + sun study diagram

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Fig | 52 Tower Concept diagram

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Fig | 51 Phase 3 programmatic breakdown

Fig | 61 Section B

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Fig | 72 Lobby II

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Fig | 73 6th floor observation deck

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Fig | 74 Lab Space

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Fig | 75 Atrium space

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Fig | 76 Grow tower

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|RE|inventing Detroit’s Identity An Agricultural Future

William G Manley IV

_June 2017

With the population of cities growing eponentially, cities are beginning to have to deal with the fact that they must feed and house so many people. Moving the production of foods, especially produce closer to the city is a way of aleviating this problem. Detroit is the perfect location to begin a complete exploration of strategies on how to implement farming operations within a city. The city lacks identity and because of that has not been able to recover once the automobile industry left the are. This thesis lays out a way for Detroit to find its identity while helping inform the world about urban agriculture. Through its three phase process, the city will create jobs, food, and help bring down the carbon emmisions created by our current food production line.

Thesis KeyWords Urban Agriculture | Detroit | Urban Farming | Verticle farming | City Revival | Research Center |

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

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1|1 Arguable Position The Industrial Revolution provided a major boost to the United States Economy and influenced many cities lives throughout its eighty-year existence. Cities stretching from the eastern border of Illinois to the eastern border of Ohio and up to the western border were beneficiaries of the large boom in factory jobs.

History shows, however, the economy and especially no industry within that economy is stable forever. This decline in industrial jobs in the US caused many of the richest cities at the time to eventually become some of the poorest. The US is still feeling the effect today. Infrastructure and buildings in most of these cities are deteriorating and falling apart as a result.

Farming and cities have been seen as two completely different entities as a result of a dense city center with a sprawling urban fabric in which people want their own bubble of space. This system has left little room for farms within a city, or at least farms in the “tradition sense.�

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Breaking tradition and meshing the city and the farm to work in one cohesive unit rather then working as two separate entities by implanting the farm into holes within the urban fabric and creating a agricultural hub within cities in order to better educate people about food and allowing the source of people’s daily diets to become part of their daily lives can help architecture, the city and the people that live within them.

1|2 Design Objectives The objective of this project is a thorough urban analysis in order to inform an insertion of farming into the cities fabric.

It is a commonly held assumption that “urban agriculture� as a concept should be dealt with at the building level only. Cities rarely encourage farming within the city fabric and in fact ban some aspects of it all together. For example, in most cities have ordinances and laws against fruit and nut bearing trees from being 9

planted in public places. As an alternative, this project proposes

to understand “urban agriculture” as a citywide problem with a central building that can act as the cities “agricultural hub” and in turn becomes the community center for the city.

Vacant and abandoned properties (Fig. 1) plague these older and industrial cities and city governments lack a holistic strategy to combat these properties from creating unwanted and unsightly holes from appearing in the urban fabric. The project seeks to find valueable, green ways of using the otherwise

Fig | 1

underutilized land and create a more useful piece of the city.

This will not only help revitalize the area but will allow for a more cohesive city to form.

A third objective of the project is to bring food production closer to the people consuming it. Food production as well as transportation account for a huge consumption in the earths natural resources. Large amounts of Water, fuel and money all go to waste because food is grown so far away form where most of the consumption actually happens. Although this project will focus

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on one such city, it should be held as an example of what can help a city in creating a more education, healthy and fruitful lifestyle for it citizens.

1|3 Where?

The city chosen for study in this project is perhaps the most plagued by the decline of the industrial revolution in the United States. Detroit, Michigan (Fig. 2) is perhaps the most well known location for automobile production in the middle of the twentieth century. Many of the great entrepreneurs of the time arrived in the city because of its position. It easily allowed resources to be Fig | 2

shipped in and a finished product to be shipped to the masses.

Detroit had one major asset that set it apart from the rest, its people. Most of the people living in the area at the time were highly skilled because of the railway system that centered itself in the area. This gave businessman plenty of opportunities to build their businesses quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately with a global trade

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market becoming the major practice of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the automobile industry in the United States and Detroit quickly declined. Detroit has never been able to recover and eventually was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2013 with a debt close to 20 billion US dollars.

While the story of Detroit may sound tragic, it is a perfect place to test an urban agriculture driven revitalization effort. The city is full of empty and vacant lots with some older warehouses and factories spread throughout the city. Large expanses of open land will allow for agriculture to be inserted into the urban landscape in a countless number of ways. While placing this kind of architectural idea into a city like Detroit can not fix its current problems, it’s the hope of the project that it can help facilitate a change in the lifestyles of its citizens and act as an example for cities struggling all over the US and the world.

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1|4 Research Approaches The project will accomplish the objectives of this thesis by three ways of approach. Throughout the process all design decisions, and strategies will control and be guided by these approaches. The first approach is to insert “green infrastructure” into the city (Fig. 3). The term “green infrastructure’ is to be defined by the case study and research realized throughout the project.

It is important that this green infrastructure is a case study that Fig | 3

can be reformatted and used elsewhere but that it also has a sense of site specificity and cannot be fully determined without proper investigation of a specific place. Secondly, a close study of the laws and policies that limit the ability of urban agriculture to facilitate change within a city. With this information, strategies can be formulated to either work around or with the current policies.

Lastly, right-sizing any city has become an increasingly important job of an urban designer. Its important to allow for the city to produce enough food to constitute its population but not to over

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produce and in turn cause the problems that we already have in food production today.

1|5 The What | Program While a lot of effort has been focused on the overall urban issues to be studied throughout the project, its important to not lose site of what will become the nucleus of the project. The building to be designed will act as a cultural and agricultural beacon for the new “green city.� It needs to act as a educational hub as well as a markets and farming hub for the city of Detroit.

The buildings aesthetics and functions need to both appear and function as a sustainable piece of the urban fabric that can jumpstart the rest of the efforts around the city.

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NOTES Mersol-Barg, Amy E. “Urban agriculture & the modern Farm Bill: cultivating prosperity in America’s rust belt.” Duke environmental law & policy forum 24, no. 1 (September 2013): 279. www.lexisnexis.com.library.scad.edu/hottopics/ lnacademic/?shr=t&csi=152926&sr=TITLE(%22Urban%20agriculture%20&%20the%20 modern%20Farm%20Bill%20cultivating%20prosperity%20in%20America%27s%20rust%20 belt%22)%20and%20date%20is%202013.

Lougheed, Tim. 2014. Arising from the ashes? environmental health in detroit.

Environmental Health Perspectives 122 (12): A324-31.

EISINGER, PETER. 2014. is detroit dead? Journal of Urban Affairs 36 (1): 1-12.

Hill, Eric, John Gallagher, and American Institute of Architects. Detroit Chapter. 2003. AIA detroit: The american institute of architects guide to detroit architecture. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Hui, Sam CM. “Green roof urban farming for buildings in high-density urban cities.” (2011).

Krikser, Thomas. “Urban Agriculture Oriented towards Self-Supply, Social and Commercial Purpose: A Typology.” Land 5, no. 3 (August 1, 2016): 28. Accessed September 17, 2016. doi:10.3390/land5030028.

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Smit, Jac, and Joe Nasr. “Urban agriculture for sustainable cities: using wastes and idle land and water bodies as resources.” Environment and urbanization 4, no. 2 (1992): 141-152.

Zezza, Alberto, and Luca Tasciotti. “Urban agriculture, poverty, and food security: Empirical evidence from a sample of developing countries.” Food policy 35, no. 4 (2010): 265-273.

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CHAPTER 2

Greater Detroit’s Urban Landscape 17

2|1 Detroit: An Industrial History Detroit’s economic decline has been well documented over the first fifteen years of the twenty first century. A once booming city that started as a port city for natural resources such as timber and iron has since been battered and bruised by globalization. The city set itself up well in the beginning and middle of the twentieth century. It was a major port city on lake superior once the Erie Canal was constructed and expanded then poised itself to become the leader of the US automobile business once the resources

Fig | 4

dwindled in the area and other places took over.

The automobile industry became Detroit’s downfall though.

Henry Ford, founder of Ford motor company, became one of the backbones of the automobile business in the city. His invention of the assembly line made it quick and relatively easy to construct cars quickly.

The problem arose, however, with the decline of skilled labor and individual craftsmen in the area. Citizens that normally owned their

Fig | 5 18

own businesses and worked on specific crafts that are valuable to a city, were no flocking to assembly lines because simply put, that’s where the most money was to be made. This eventually led to Detroit becoming a one-industry entity essentially.

Unfortunately for the city of Detroit, globalization began to become popular and more easily accessible through advancements in technology. Asia began creating areas where factories could live and pay workers far less then those found in the US. This devastated industrial cities in the US and especially Detroit which has never been able to regain footing in a global economy. Quickly factories were moving farther outside the city, causing workers to relocate with them, leaving only the poorest of the population still downtown. Eventually, most of the factories left all together causing the citizens that moved to find other forms of employment.

2|2 Problems? Crime, Poverty, Land Use 19

With a mass migration of citizens out of the Detroit downtown

area and into the suburbs, the cities economy dwindled and crime skyrocketed. One can imagine the many problems that can arise from such a rapidly declining city. Cities are responsible for so many things from infrastructure, to public safety and all of it needs to be paid for. The fact that Detroit could no longer lure manufacturing businesses into the city meant that this oneindustry city quickly became a city with any industry at all. This in turn meant very little revenue as well. These issues along with social injustices, and speculations of corruption left no hope for the city.

From its Peak in 1950 of 1.85 million people in its urban center, the cities overall population began to decline. Most of the people that left were Middle and working class families that were lured away by jobs in the suburbs as well as subsidization of mortgages on newly built homes. This left the poor and working poor in the city to fend for themselves. In 1950 the suburbs only had a 3% higher median household income then that of the city.

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With the mass exodus of the working class from the city, by 2000 the difference was nearly 100% higher.

Much of the poverty seen in Detroit can be linked to their dependence on the car industry to employ most of the city. As Peter Eisinger states in his article “Is Detroit Dead” “the city entered into a Faustian bargain: it embraced an industry to the exclusion of nearly all else that provided jobs for workers with little education but that offered incomes and benefits that lifted them into the lower middle class. But the catch was not only that they had to deal with the cyclical instability of economic boom and bust, but also the de-skilling effects of assembly line work that made labor more vulnerable to automation and made displaced auto workers unprepared to compete with skilled labor in other industries.”

The most impoverished group as a result of this mass exodus and policy making by the city were African-American residents.

In the 1950 Albert Cobo took over the city hall and immediately 21

overhauled the existing public housing plans set forth before him.

Instead, Cobo put a necessity on urban renewal projects, which would eradicate current slums in the city. This caused wide spread homelessness and even more poverty for the people living in theses areas.

2|3 Lot Vacancies and Abandonment in Detroit Lot vacancies and abandonments is quite the epidemic in the city of Detroit today and have even found its way into the suburbs. The city has begun to combat the issue starting in 2012 with a program to sell existing vacant lots for a small sum of money and eventually making higher taxes off the land once its owed. Since 2014 programs such as the Detroit Land

Fig | 6

Band Authority’s Side Lot Program has sold over 2,500 vacant lots throughout the city. This seems like quite the feat until it is compared to the actual number of vacant lots within the city. The total amount of vacant lots within the city comes out to 55,000 as of 2015 and with an additional 20,000 side lots. To put that in

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perspective, only three percent of all vacant lots have been bought within the last 2 years.

The city desperately needs a more comprehensive way to fill the voids within the city. Adapting the city with a agricultural landscape in these areas or at least a large percentage of these areas can be an asset to the city in many ways. First, It is a way for the city to find an industry that replaces their automobile industry that left Fig | 7

long ago. One major reason Detroit has had such a mass exodus and therefore and horrible abandonment and vacancy problem has been the cities lack of ability to attract new and thriving industries to replace the one they lost. Many cities are implementing agriculture into their cities but few have the special ability that Detroit does.

Secondly, the industry will bring new jobs to the area. Jobs are an important factor to many families in the United States after the recession. As the countries job markets have grown, Detroit’s have remained stagnant. The agricultural industry will be a way

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of invigorating not on the city as a whole but more importantly its

economy.

Lastly, implementing agriculture into the urban fabric of any city brings the source of food that we eat everyday closer to the consumer. This will greatly reduces packaging, shipping and overhead costs that each consumer pays extra money for. Also, it cuts down on a need for fossil fuels to ship and harvest crops; since they are planted closer to the city and on smaller individual plots.

2|4 The Climate of Detroit Its no surprise that Detroit’s climate is quite extreme. It has the ability to get quite cold in the winter with large amount of snow. According to a “hardiness zone map” of Michigan, Detroit falls into the sixth zone. This tends to be the most extreme of all six zones. This in no way excludes the area of becoming an agricultural hub. According to a chart accompanying the diagram Detroit is able to plant, beans, beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts,

Fig | 8 24

cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, corn, cucumbers, kale, lettuce, onions, peas, peppers, spinach, squash and tomatoes but is limited for about four months between November and February.

Although, the cold month are an obvious challenge they leave a great problem to be solved by design. A series of greenhouse like structures with a central “learning and cultivation hub� within the city will allow for year round growing and production.

Fig | 9 25

NOTES Mersol-Barg, Amy E. “Urban agriculture & the modern Farm Bill: cultivating prosperity in America’s rust belt.” Duke environmental law & policy forum 24, no. 1 (September 2013): 279. www.lexisnexis.com.library.scad.edu/hottopics/ lnacademic/?shr=t&csi=152926&sr=TITLE(%22Urban%20agriculture%20&%20the%20 modern%20Farm%20Bill%20cultivating%20prosperity%20in%20America%27s%20rust%20 belt%22)%20and%20date%20is%202013.

Lougheed, Tim. 2014. Arising from the ashes? environmental health in detroit.

Environmental Health Perspectives 122 (12): A324-31.

EISINGER, PETER. 2014. is detroit dead? Journal of Urban Affairs 36 (1): 1-12.

Hill, Eric, John Gallagher, and American Institute of Architects. Detroit Chapter. 2003. AIA detroit: The american institute of architects guide to detroit architecture. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Smit, Jac, and Joe Nasr. “Urban agriculture for sustainable cities: using wastes and idle land and water bodies as resources.” Environment and urbanization 4, no. 2 (1992): 141152.

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CHAPTER 3

Introduction Of Urban Agriculture 27

3|1 Disconnect between Farming and Urbanism For more then a century the ideas of Urban and rural landscapes have been held as two apparently different entities that work cohesively but serve completely different purposes.

Rural America is believed to house farming and all agriculture to service the city. While there are some people that do decide to live a rural lifestyle it has been proven that most people in the last century have chosen to live in cities. It has been estimated that at least seventy percent of the world’s population now lives in cities.

That means there are over 5 billion mouths to feed in these cities.

Despite this staggering number, farms remain thousands of miles away from these population centers. This in turn causes billions of pounds of food to be shipped worldwide to reach its consumers.

The answer to this problem is simply moving the farms closer to the city, or better yet, into the city. Detroit, specifically, has thousands of acres of unclaimed, vacant or abandoned land

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that could be used more strategically. This makes it that perfect candidate to lead that world in “industrializing� itself in agriculture.

It has the opportunity to reinvent itself and set examples for the entire country and world into how urban agriculture can make the city more sustainable and knowledgeable about the food we eat everyday. This can only lead to a more resource responsible and knowledgeable citizen population.

3|2 Problems with Food Production Food production, as with many other commodities, has created a globalized network. While this has its advantages, as we have seen, it has many disadvantages as well. Three of these problems in particular are a cause for the most concern.

First, food waste is a major epidemic in the world market. It is Fig | 10

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widely publicized that poverty and hunger are running rampant in some parts of the world while other flourish. The cause of this can be explained by a closer look at certain statistics. It has been

concluded that the global agricultural production is greater then the consumption of that agricultural product. The reason people are still hungry is because forty tons, which is to say, one-third of food gets thrown away every second during transport. The far distances between production and source cause many logistic problems and many times problems occur. Bringing the production as close to the consumer as possible will shrink this problem and could account for more food to be distributed at lower costs.

Secondly, cash cropping is another huge problem in the agriculture industry today. Large swaths of land and in most cases whole farms are designated to grow a certain type of crop because it simply makes the most money. This may be helpful to the farmers or companies bottom line but in general it’s a horrible things for the worlds food chain. Over growing a certain crop such as corn allows for a surplus to form by one country, meaning it can be sold at lower cost and drives smaller companies and farmers out of that business. It also means that this cheaper plant

Fig | 11

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is used as filler in a lot of the foods we consume because it is so cheap and in most cases is done without the consumer complete knowledge. The disconnect between farm and table allows consumers to be easily confused as to what they are eating and allows companies to flourish off that ignorance.

Lastly, the use of pesticides is not only harmful to the environment but also to our health. The shear size of most farms does not allow farmers the ability to passively control pests in natural ways.

Because farms are so large, pesticides and other chemicals are more cost efficient and easier to use to protect large swaths of crops. At the same time however, these chemicals poison the food and seep into the watershed causing all sorts of health risks along the way. While they are considers “safe� by the FDA for use on farms, its quite obvious that this is not always the case. In Rotterdam however, large indoor, urban farms, have proven easier to control and over all more efficient in producing food. Because 31

the farm is indoors, the farmers are able to control the few pest that

Fig | 12

get into the green house with harmless lady bugs. This is a natural and relatively inexpensive way of fixing a problem that traditional farming has not been able to completely solve.

3|3 Ways of Implementing Urban Agriculture Although the concept of Urban agriculture is a relatively new subject, it has begun to capture a lot of attention in recent years. As people flock to cities and the food chain becomes increasingly large

Fig | 13

and unmanageable, cities are trying to cope with the ability to feed their populations and the population is attempting to gain control of where their food is created. The options for farming include

TRADITIONAL- flat land farming, which needs large swaths of land and uses fertilizers and pesticides that are not safe for human consumption Fig | 14

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Fig | 15

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Urban Agriculture- Farming done within the city which cuts back on the cost of food transportation, and is done in indoor facilities or greenhouses for the most part. As a result, the need for pesticides is much less and the food quality can be controled easier.

Under the Urban Agricultural heading there are two main forms of farming: Hydroponics- The use of a water system that feeds the plants and doesn’t have a need for soil. It can either be done with floating beds where the plants float on a growing raft above the water or through a misting of the roots. This process requires some natural additives to the water to feed the plants.

Aquaponics- This type of growing is done through a natural cycle where waste from a fish is then created into nitrates naturally and fed to the plants through the water. This process is completely natural and continuous. It uses 90% less water and no soil, pesticides or unnatural fertilizers.

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Production Cycle

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Fig | 16

3|4 Feasible Agricultural Options (What can be grown) The decision to use aquaponics as the main form of food production in the Detroit Agricultural Research Complex allows for greater flexibility in the types of vvegetables to grow. Its no surprise that detroit has one of the most extfreme climates and although that limits the types of produce that can be grown successfully outdoors, as firgure 15 shows, there is still a wide range of crops that can be grown with only a couple months that become completely useless to farmers. This is just one of the many reasons verticle farming needs to be used in a food production and the traditional way of farming should be abandoned.

3|5 Agriculture as a way of building a community Agriculture can service a community in many different ways.

Firstly, it can give a city and identity that it was otherwise lacking.

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Detroit has been in an identity crisis for over fifty years. It has failed to create jobs, infrastructure and a new industry for the city that was once flourishing under the car empire that was stationed there. Secondly, it allows people to gain knowledge from both the process of farming and the cooking of the food that is grown.

Cooking is quite an underestimated skill that fewer and fewer people have mastered currently. Being able to cook gives the chef a sense of pride in creating something while allowing them to survive on their own without depending on restaurants that most of the time underperform. Lastly, it adds value to the city. As it stands, lots and houses are extremely cheap in Detroit proper.

In some cases one can buy a house for just over one thousand dollars. This is mainly due to a lack of jobs in the area and an enormas amount of vacant lots within the city. Allowing agriculture Fig | 17

to occupy some of these lots and giving a sense of value back to the city will attract more citizens to occupy the city and raise the value within.

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NOTES

Balan, Viorica. “SPECIES AND CULTIVARS OF TREES AND SHRUBS SUITABLE FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE.” Agrolife Scientific Journal 4, no. 1 (January 1, 2015): 9-17.

Accessed September 17, 2016. http://agrolifejournal.usamv.ro/.

Berg, Elizabeth G. “Bringing food back home: revitalizing the postindustrial American city through state and local policies promoting urban agriculture.” Oregon law review 92, no. 3 (March 2014): 783.

Cities Farming for the Future : Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities.

Ottawa, CA: IDRC Books / Les Éditions du CRDI, 2005. Accessed September 19, 2016.

ProQuest ebrary.

Cockrall-King, Jennifer. Food and the City. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2012 Krikser, Thomas. “Urban Agriculture Oriented towards Self-Supply, Social and Commercial Purpose: A Typology.” Land 5, no. 3 (August 1, 2016): 28. Accessed September 17, 2016. doi:10.3390/land5030028.

Despommier, Dickson, Dr. The Vertical Farm. New York: St Martin Press, 2010.

Opitz, Ina. “Toward Sustainability: Novelties, Areas of Learning and Innovation in Urban Agriculture.” Sustainability 8, no. 4 (April 1, 2016): 356. Accessed September 17, 2016. doi:10.3390/su8040356.

Schilling, Joseph, and Jonathan Logan. “Greening the rust belt: A green infrastructure model for right sizing America’s shrinking cities.” Journal of the American Planning Association 74, no. 4 (2008): 451-466.

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CHAPTER 4 |RE|inveting Detroit

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Fig | 18

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4|1 Agriculture Brought Closer to Consumption Over the last decade, farming has begun moving into cities rather then the traditional Large field farming. It hasn’t become popular enough to make a huge difference yet, however. as figure 24 shows, farmers are still a missing demographic in major cities, especially those located outside of the Midwest . This is partially due to the popluations infatuation with the old ways of farming and not recognizing their newer counterparts as true farmers. The second reason is that there is not a real case study that shows how to successfully manage an urban agricultural project and make it feasible. Detroit’s Urban Agricultural Research Complex will change that.

At this moment, the Wayne County, Michigan, and therefore Detroit, has less then 1,000 farmer county wide. In fact, most of the counties around them dont fair much better. Just two states over, however, Farming is a major industry and becomes a dependence 43

for some in states such as nebraska, and North and South Dekota.

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*Farmers Per 1000 people

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4|2 “Sustainable Infill�

The city of Detroit has been ravaged by many problems that have led to the cities drastic decline once the automobile industry left the are. This steep decline can be attributed to 6 major problems, A mass exodus to the suburbs, land vacancies, corruption, lack of tax revenue, crime, and high unemployment rates. figure 28, 29 show the current urban landscape of Detroit and the current plans to restructure the fabric to begin rebuilding the city. REinventing Detroits identity is an important step in the restoration process to bring back a flourishing Detroit. The ultimate plan for the city is to Infill the neighborhoods of the city with urban gardens that will increase property value, bring people back into the city, increase tax revenue from the land that is bought, create jobs, and ultimately combat crime by making the urban fabric more popluated and dense. The urban gardens will work in conjunction with the research center to create a cohessive growth plan for the 49

urban agricultural industry of Detroit.

Fig | 25

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The first step in phase 3 is to begin community gardens in the vacant lots within the cities neighborhoods

Resident will begin moving back into the area.

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The gardens will fill lots and rasie property values around the neighborhood by giving the area a sense of place.

More property tax money will be given to the city as lots are bought and privately owned.

Crime will reduce as the area become more populated and money is available to make the areas safer.

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Fig | 35 Fig | 36

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4|3 Agriculture and Urbanism Merge The main Site for the project is located in North west of Detroits city center. It is home to the cities emerging farming community. It houses the cities farmers market as well as some local restaurants and shops. The site is also surrounded by academic buildings and some industrial buildings. The sit is a perfect link between the downtown area and the forgotten housing neighborhoods with an agricultural buffer. It has plenty of oppurtunities for access from cars, pedestrians, and bikes. The climate changes drastically from season to season but the wind primarily comes from the southern part of the site.

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Fig | 37 60

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The project designs a way for Detroit to create a new industry for the city to build upon and thrive again as it did when the auto industry took root in the city. It will be done in three phases and will feed, house and educated the people of the city. The phases are as follows: 61

Phase 1 | phases 1 is explored and designed in this thesis. it is a research center that will become the catalyst for the new urban agriculture movement in Detroit.

Phase 2 | Phase 2 will bring the growing to the community to fill vacant lots, raise property values, lure people back to the city and create more tax revenue and safer streets for all and will repurpose the abandoned factory to the North as a new farmers market to expand on the existing one and allow people to experience the things that are being created within the research center

Phase 3| Phase 3 will construct a new building to the NE of the research center that will house a restaurant to create intrest in the food being grown, housing, and educational classrooms for people in the city to learn about cooking and growing their own food Fig | 39 62

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CHAPTER 5 The Building

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Fig | 47

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5|1 Formal Study + Strategy Given that the project is intended to help supplement the food usage for the city it was calculated that the program would need to be 2/3 farming and 1/3 building. This is using “conventional� urban farming and aquaponics. Rather then take the traditional approach, the project uses a new form of verticle farming to alieviate the need for such a large amount of space to farm. The greenhouse is then Fig | 48

allowed to bifurcate the building and create a icon for the Eastern Market district of the city

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5|2 Programatic Strategy Detroit depended on the car industry for so many years and it unfortunately debilitated the city once it left. The programatic strategy takes inspiration from the car in order to remember the past while looking toward the future. The car is probably one of the most unsustainable practices because of the amount of use they get on a daily basis. The program takes the analogy and makes a much more sustainable concept of a car. The reseach “fuels” the project. The greenhouses drive the project like “pistons” of an engine and the start-up incubators, or visiting researchers from other cities “spark” the intrest of other cities. These three elements come together to “drive” a greener city concept of the twenty-first 71

century.

In the final phase of the project, The third site is designed and

Fig | 50

built as the third anchor point for the entire project. The building houses local residents and travelers that are researching on site. It also houses cooking classrooms and other learning oppurtunities for the cities residents to better inform the are what the project is producing and how they can use it to better their own food consumption and preperation. Lastly, the restaurant is housed between the two buildings and is elevated to make a plaza space that is surrounded by all three phases of the project and creating a new hub for the city.

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5|3 “The Tower�

As a result of the limited space that cities provide, the most beneficial choice to grow within a city is verticle farming. The tower concept designed for this project has the ability to rotate the plants in order to give them a constant cycle of sunlight and water. The tower takes the waste water from the fish and pumps it to a natural biofilter that has earth worms and natural bacteria which turns the waste into nitrates. These nitrates are natural fertilizer for the plants.

The water is then filtered down another tube and spins a wheel that spins the whole carrousell and ends in the plant feeding trough. once that trough spills over it spins the water assisted generator that pumps the water back through the system. The system is estimated to cost as low as five dollars a day, per tower, to run.

The tower is inspired by Jack Ng of Singapore. The weakness of his tower was that it didnt implement the fish to feed the system or the biofilter. This means that additives were needed in the water that cycled through the system rather then the natural process shown in this tower concept.

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Fig | 53

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5|4 Grow Options The vertical farm, aquaponics system is great for growing a wide range of plants and can raise quite a few species of fish.

The project has chosen to allow for one or two different crops to be grown on each tower at any one time and each tower can be harvested on each level.

The fish chosen for the project with Detroits climate in mind.

Each of the fish species are highly comodifiable and can thrive in cold water. This means that the water collected from rain and snow can be introduced into the system as needed without a need for a large amount of heating. There are three total tanks servicing 3 towers each. All fish are consumable except for goldfish and koi. Those are introduced into the project as a possibility for a fundraiser where visitors can purchase a fish and take home one as a souvenir. This is a way to attract people to tour the building as well as adding to funding the building.

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5|5 Architectural Drawings

Level 1

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Level 2

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Level 3

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Level 4

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Level 5

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Level 6

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Section A

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Section B

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5|6 Facade Construction + Function The facade of the building will be a light wood structure.

It will be created in three layers and each will be held together with interlocking pieces which will eliminate the need to use metal fasteners in the project. Figure 63 shows the layers of the facade, which is made up of indoor, outdoor and curtain wall components, and the way the actural pieces interlock to form the overall structure. Figure 62 shows how the facade and floor overhand eliminate unneeded Solar gain to the building. The facade acts both funcationally and experientially within the building because as figures 71 and 72 show, it is able to form walls within the buildings 87

Fig | 62

envelope as well.

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NORTH WEST ELEVATION

89 NORTH EAST ELEVATION

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SOUTH EAST ELEVATION

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SOUTH WEST ELEVATION 90

5|6 Collaboration Orbs An important function of the building is that it needs to act as a case study for other major cities. As a result, the upper 3 floors on the east side of the building are designated for traveling entities and cities to have a place to research and learn. This part of the building will be the incubator for ideas that can travel and spread worldwide. As a result, collaboration spaces are needed so that both side of the building can meet, share ideas and learn from one another. The orbs located on various floors act as breakrooms and conference rooms to do this. The orbs are suspended from the steal structure of the greenhouse and the drainage from the top of the greenhouse is done through the extra space within the 91

structural elements used.

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Conclusion

The Case Study for the World 93

Throughout the process the project has two goals, to create a case study for the world and to create a new identity for Detroit.

Detroit has struggled for many years to define itself and the world has struggled even longer at finding ways to better produce cleaner, safer, and more cost efficient food to help both humans and the enviorment they live in. This study within helps solve both problems by creating a fully functional piece of detroits Eastern Market district and allowing the research done within to permeate the city and help it find its place once again in a quickly changing world.

It does this while informing the world of what can be done with a controlled, efficient and safer farming method. All while bringing production closer to its consumption. By doing this, Detroit will truely become a case study for the world.

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