Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Tokyo Advanced Design Studies Department of Architecture The University of Tokyo

2021 Advanced Design Studies Master's Thesis

LI Zhou

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Master's Thesis

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

LI Zhou

Supervising Professor: ADS

Additional Supervising Professor:

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Yusuke Obuchi

Toru Mitani Yoshiyuki Kawazoe

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2021 Advanced Design Studies Master's Thesis

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Editors: LI Zhou Book Design: LI Zhou Book Edition Design: Jan Vranovsky Printed in Tokyo, Japan Advanced Design Studies Typeface: F Grotesk by Radim Peško © 2021 Obuchi Lab, T

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Department of Architecture Graduate School of Engineering The University of Tokyo Eng. Bldg. 1, Room 415 7

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Bunkyō

1 Hongō ku

Tokyo, 113

8656

Japan www.t-ads.org

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Acknowledgements During the Time of a Pandemic Abstract 1.0 Background

1.1 The New Normal

1.2 The Problem with Food

1.3 The Urban Farming Movement

1.4 Summary

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Table of Contents

2.0 Research Objective 3.0 State of Food

3.2 Controlled Environment Farming

3.3 Decentralized Farming

3.3.1 Window Farms Project

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3.1 Industrialized Farming and Monoculture

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4.0 Method

4.1 Classification

4.2 Survey

4.2 Catalogue

4.2 Case Study

5.0 Body of Work

5.1 Catalog

5.2 Case Studies

6.0 Conclusion

6.1 Research Findings

6.2 Future Insights

7.0 References 8.0 Appendix

8.1 Therapeutic Urban Aquaponics:

Goldfish Architecture

8.2 Komagome Terrace

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During the Time of a Pandemic: We are living through a unique condition in a specific timeframe. The COVID-19 Global pandemic has impacted all of us on our lifestyles and preconceptions about our urban environment. Extending beyond the disease itself, a host of issues has been caused, brought up, and revealed.

These issues force us to think critically as architects and designers, the new challenges our built environment must face, and whether to consider these challenges a shortterm or long-term issue.

This pandemic has fundamentally changed how we work, communicate, travel, and a host of remedies have emerged from both the top-down and bottom-up to cope with emerging issues. While we all hope that the pandemic can soon be over and that we can finally return to normal, there are values in what was invented, inspired, or bashed together when this disruption came. From a long-term perspective, I wish to preserve more firsthand experiences, thoughts, and actions inspired by the pandemic.

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I want to express my most sincere gratitude to the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Engineering, for providing me with this amazing education opportunity through the G30 Architecture and Urban Design masters course and fully supporting my studies through the SEUT-RA scholarship program.

I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Yusuke Obuchi, whose expertise was invaluable in formulating

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Acknowledgments:

the research questions and methodology. His insightful feedback pushed me to sharpen my thinking and brought my work to a higher level. I would also like to thank my advisors, Professor Toru Mitani and Professor Yoshiyuki Kawazoe for their inspiring work and for reviewing this thesis.

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members of the Obuchi Laboratory for their extraordinary

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I would like to acknowledge the present and past collaboration, guidance, and legacy. I would particularly like to thank our lab secretary, Kakuko Kato, for her incredible support during my study that has been instrumental in successfully completing my degree.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my family.

They are my strongest support and has always given me the best encouragement. This pandemic has separated us; however, we managed to connect through our newfound mutual interest in gardening. This connection inspired this research and has helped me tremendously in coping with the pandemic.

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Fig.1 Window sill aquaponic system, home experiment conducted

by LI Zhou

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

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Page Description

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Fig.2 lettuce mix grown form window sill aquaponic system, home experiment conducted by LI Zhou 11

Introduction

Abstract

"Growing some of your own food is one of the best things that you can do to the environment" and can “help heal 1.

Pollan, Michael. (2008, April 20). "Why Bother" New York Times Magazine.

the split between what you think and what you do” and “to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen." 1 - Michael Pollan From the article: “Why Bother?” The New York Times Magazine, April 20, 2008 The COVID-19 global pandemic has sparked a movement in urban farming. This new trend is characterized by individually operated, small-scale edible gardens in the urban domestic space, in apartments and small residential blocks, where farming for food was thought to be impractical and even impossible.

This thesis looks at this phenomenon and tries to draw conclusions for how this happened, why this happened, and the possible implications that this can have in urban development, architectural design, and our food infrastructure.

The research method consists of an online community survey and in-depth case studies of five urban farmers, each representing a unique approach to urban farming and a unique agenda to urban farming. Their farms, farming systems, and techniques, as well as their mission and drive, are being documented faithfully and used as primary references to analyze and draw conclusions.

The results of the survey will be presented as a catalog of community-developed urban farming systems and gadgets. This document looks at the unique innovations and adaptations that made growing food possible in the urban domestic space.

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Background

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

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1.0 Background

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Background

Background

1.0

1.1 The New Normal The COVID-19 global pandemic seriously challenged our established urban systems and drastically changed people’s lives. People have gone through the many stages of quarantine. The initial shock to the system, the denial that fermented in some of us, anger or catharsis that followed, acceptance, uncertainty, or depression that we still face till this moment in Summer of 2021.

The quarantine, social distancing, and preventative measures have been implemented so long as they can no longer be referred to as emergency responses or temporary measures. Under this condition, the definition of the “new normal” is invented. This term not only more accurately describes what we are going through but frames it in a way in which it can help people mentally prepare for the long haul.

There are many characteristics of the new normal. For example, people cannot drink at night in Izakayas anymore.

However, the primary characteristic of the new normal is the re-introducing of many societal functions back to the 16

domestic space. Under the conditions of the new normal,

people are forced to work from home, cook and eat from home, socialize, exercise, and perform other activities in the domestic environment.

Fig. 3 The New Normal1

1 Getty Images

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

places for social functions in the city are shun down, and

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This is an interesting development, as this is in direct opposition to the general understanding of the advancement of urbanism. Tokyo was largely considered one of the most advanced and developed urbanisms in the world. The main characteristic of Tokyo was to specialize and compartmentalize many home functions into the public environment in what was described as dividual space or public private space by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto.2 In Tokyo, many people live in tiny apartments with the bare minimal functions and outsource many aspects of their lives into a rentable public private space for purchasable privacy. There is no living room, as people hang out in izakaya or karaoke booths, the fridge doesn’t hold much, as the convenient stores at every street corner become the extended capacity of one’s fridge. People are so attuned to getting all their living needs from the city, and

2.

Tsukamoto, Yoshiharu. Tokyo Public Space Networks at the Intersection of the Commercial and the Domestic

the city becomes an extension of their home’s floor plan.

Realms, Study on Dividual Space.

In this highly urbanized and compartmentalized mega

Building Engineering/November

city, the boundary between private and public space is

Journal of Asian Architecture and 2006/308

blurred.

This system of urban operations posed many interesting conditions and phenomena and has become the defining urban feature of Tokyo. Such development for more 17

specialization and more compartmentalization resulted

Background

in more jobs, a better economy, and reduced the need for more extensive housing. For decades, this was our answer to the growing population and increased levels of urbanization. In countries like China, where shared accommodation is the norm, the concept of purchasing privacy became popular as people’s standard of living increase, while the housing situation is unable to catch up to people’s needs.

The pandemic, however, completely altered the trajectory of this development. The public realm was almost completely shut off, and the public private spaces become notorious for spreading the corona virus. People were forced to tighten their living radius and significantly reduce their social or personal activities outside the confines of their homes. As a result, people spend more time in their homes by themselves, placing more importance on the quality of domestic space and creating new opportunities for exploring the potential of their domestic space.

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3.

Zurayk, R. (2020). Pandemic and Food Security: A View from

In a highly urbanized 21st century society, food is often

the Global South. Journal of

regarded as an abundant resource. This is the main

Community Development, 9(3),

reason why, at the beginning of the pandemic, people worldwide were shocked when suddenly and to many of

Agriculture, Food Systems, and 17–21. https://doi.org/10.5304/ jafscd.2020.093.014

us for the first time that we are faced with a threat to food security.

Food security consists of three main pillars, food availability, food access, and food utilization.3

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

1.2 The Problem with Food

Fig. 4 Food Security Factors affecting positively (+),negatively (-) or not (o) the food

Reincke, K., Vilvert, E., Fasse, A. et al.

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dimensions of food security

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availability, access and utilization

Key factors influencing food security of smallholder farmers in Tanzania and the role of cassava as a strategic crop. Food Sec. 10, 911–924 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-0180814-3

Food availability refers to having enough food for the entire population. This refers to the overall quantities of food, including those in the farm, gardens, and shops. While food availability was not the direct cause of this threat of food security in the pandemic, whether we have entered an age of food abundance is still another issue to discuss.

Food access, on the other hand, is the primary cause of what threatened food security during this pandemic. Food access refers to whether individuals are able to obtain the available food. Food access encompasses a whole range 19

of issues and parties, including transportation, retail, as

Background

well as individual ability. In the context of the pandemic, transportation was cut off in many circumstances, resulting in unrealized delivery and shortage in the distributor. Panic buying is another concern, for example, in the case of toilet paper. While the supply of toilet papers was never lowered to the point where it could cause a mass shortage, panic buying behaviors of the consumers resulted in empty shelves. Additionally, due to social distancing and infection control measures, certain groups of individuals cannot get out and acquire food. This was caused by reduced service hours, maximum capacity cap, or that the individuals are prevented from exiting their homes altogether.

The third and final pillar of food security is food utilization.

This concept is used interchangably with the term food waste, and is often forgotten in the context of food crisis, as people assume that food waste implies no food shortage or food crisis. However, this is indeed an issue, especially in the case where heavy quarantine rules were implemented. In many areas, food is pre-packaged and sent to each household to eliminate the need for these individuals to get out and purchase food for themselves.

Other places might limit the number of times that individuals can get out and purchase food. Under these circumstances, lousy planning and incorrect storage can result in over-purchasing or underutilization.

Food utilization has been a persistent problem for food 4.

Gopal, Sumitra, director.

YouTube, YouTube, 27 Nov. 2020, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wc9NfAIwJz8&t=1315s.

Accessed 20 July 2021.

subsidy services, and similar conditions might shed light on what is happening during the pandemic. In Singapore, many people who receive food subsidies don’t like the food or are unable to finish certain foods at the rate that they are given.4 Many elderly people were given canned foods, which was never part of their diet, and some of them don’t even own a can opener. In these instances, although the food was widely available, and people had access to it, people are still under threat of food security crisis as the allocated foods are not utilized.

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Violeta Stancu, Pernille Haugaard, Liisa Lähteenmäki, Determinants of consumer food waste behaviour: Two routes to food waste, Appetite, Volume 96, 2016, Pages 7-17, ISSN 20

0195-6663.

Fresh foods, in particular, are highly vulnerable to food utilization issues or food waste. One study suggests that every 2 of 3 packs of freshly bagged, ready-to-eat vegetables ends up in the garbage. 5

magnified these issues around food security, these problems are intrinsic to the modern food system and constantly lurk below the illusion of food abundance.

For more discussions on this topic, please refer to section 3.0 State of Food.

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Pandemic and Food Security

Green Revolution: The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural

While the food shortages caused by the pandemic is short

Revolution, is the set of research technology transfer initiatives

lived, it revealed many inherent problems to the modern

occurring between 1950 and the late

food system. Our current food system is the direct result

production in parts of the world,

1960s, that increased agricultural

of the third agricultural revolution, or green revolution ,

beginning most markedly in the late

where significantly more food can be produced by highly

The Asian Green Revolution. IFPRI

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specialized and centralized farming using sometimes

1960s. Hazell, Peter B.R. (2009).

Discussion Paper. Intl Food Policy Res Inst. GGKEY:HS2UT4LADZD. T

genetically modifies high-yielding varieties.⁷ This practice

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is also referred to as monoculture, which puts high strains on the environment, causing deforestation, and relies on large quantities of cheap energy and fuel to distribute food

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products. While this is an amazing innovation that saved

Assessing the Impact of the Green

lives and made food more approachable to everyone, it is

Evenson*, D. Gollin. Science 02

not without its problems.

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

While the COVID-19 global pandemic has temporarily

Revolution, 1960 to 2000 R. E. May 2003: Vol. 300, Issue 5620, pp.

758-762

Our modern food system is highly resource-intensive.

Currently, the agriculture industry uses 40% of all occupiable land, emits more than 20% of global greenhouse gasses, and accounts for 70% of global freshwater consumption⁸. The practice of monoculture destroys ecosystems and their many self-sustaining functions. As a result, human interventions are always required to ensure that crops can survive and produce

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Tiziano Gomiero, David Pimentel & Maurizio G. Paoletti (2011) Environmental Impact of Different

a harvest. A example of this is the need to exxcessively

Agricultural Management

water the plants, as water evaporates quickly without a

Agriculture, Critical Reviews in

local climate. Pests and diseases spread like wildfire, thus requiring large amounts of pesticides and herbicides. Soil

Practices: Conventional vs. Organic Plant Sciences, 30:1-2, 95-124, DOI: 10.1080/07352689.2011.554355

is depleted, resulting in the need for chemical fertilizers, and the agricultural industry uses a lot of energy due to this.

Despite the number of resources that was put in, our current food system still cannot produce enough food 21

for this planet. Many third-world countries are still

Background

struggling to provide enough food for their population, and many people face hunger as an everyday activity.

Even in developed nations such as the US and Singapore, many people still cannot afford food as a result of certain problems within the social system. On top of these, climate change has resulted in more natural disasters that have threatened the food supply.

In the near future, with a growing population and higher levels of urbanization, the food problem will be even more pronounced. By projections made by the World 9.

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Population Prospects 2019:

Health Organization, we are expected to have a global population of 9.8 billion people by 2050⁹. This population will require that our agricultural output increase by 70%

Highlights. ST/ESA/SER.A/423.

over the next 30 years to keep up with the demand10. This

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is a concerning number given the amount of resources

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Population Prospects 2019: Ten Key Findings.

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United Nations, Department

that are already used by the agricultural industry today.

Making matters worse, is that our global population are moving towards a higher level of urbanization, with a projected 68% urbanization rate by 205011. This will cause

of Economic and Social Affairs,

more problems for food access, as more food needs to be

Population Division (2019). World

distributed to urban centers.

Population Prospects 2019: Volume II: Demographic Profiles.

In conclusion, our current food system is inherently unsustainable and is only made possible by our abuse of natural resources and cheap fuel. In the near future, our global climate will no longer allow for such abusive actions, and the food systems need to be transformed to meet growing demand.

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

1.3 The Urban Farming Movement The combined effect of decreased social activity and more time has resulted in more people taking an interest in gardening and resulting in many more people participating in the urban farming movement.

Gardening is one of the few things that people can still enjoy given the conditions and circumstances of the pandemic, and it is almost the perfect activity for pandemic life. It is cheap, it is fun, and it is rewarding.

Gardening is something that almost anyone can enjoy at their own pace and their own space. It is also a very versatile activity, where you can enjoy many different levels of commitment and investment. Gardening is also an excellent way for people to connect with nature, get sunlight, interact with plants, critters, and soil. It is

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also a bit of exercise or activity that can seamlessly fit

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into people’s lives. Taking care of plants and watching them grow is also a tremendous mental health booster.

Many research have suggested the positive mental impacts when being near plants and taking care of them.

Gardening is also a great topic to exchange conversations and can help people connect.

The Gardening Trend

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Spirgen, Kate. “2020 State of the Industry Report: Impact of

According to google trends, words like plants and gardening were twice as popular in 2020 compared to previous years, an abnormal high compared to years of stable seasonal fluctuations. In terms of businesses, 71% 12

Coronavirus.” Garden Center Magazine, Garden Center Magazine, 6 Oct. 2020, www.gardencentermag. com/article/2020-state-ofthe-industry-report-impact-ofcoronavirus/

of garden center owners reported a significant increase in sales, and over 90 percent reported an increase in sales overall. This is quite a surprising number considering how other businesses like restaurants and retail suffered tremendously due to the pandemic.

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Background Fig.5 Google Trends shows that “gardening” became twice as popular in 2020 compared to years of stable seasonal fluctuations. Data source: Google Trends (https://www.google. com/trends).

A notable fact with the increasing popularity of gardening is that the younger generation embraces what was usually concerned as an old people activity. Studies have shown that young people have developed a strong interest in plants and gardening, especially in the urban setting where they usually live, creating a new movement for urban gardening.13 They are constantly expanding the definition and capabilities of gardening, developing new methods,

13.

Knight, Rob. “Four in Five 18-34-Year-Olds Think Garden-

lifestyles, and communities around sustainable living and urban gardening in major metropolitan areas.

ing Is 'Cool' - Poll.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 4 June 2021, www.independent.co.uk/lifestyle/young-people-gardening-covid-lockdown-b1859595. html.

Since gardening is such a universally enjoyable activity across countries, ages, and gender, it is also a great way to connect people. During the pandemic, where not much is happening, and families are separated, this is an excellent topic to stay connected. I personally have exchanged a lot of conversations with friends and families, sharing what I have found, learning from other people, and discuss success and failures. Notably, I had a great time talking with my grandparents, we for the first time, we talked like friends. We are all happy to share what we have, some tips and tricks that we find interesting, and although the pandemic separates us, we connected more than ever. It is also fun to exchange gardening conversations with my parents, who also took up gardening around the same time. We had a lot of fun figuring things out together, compare how things grow differently from where we live, and show off to each other when flowers bloom.

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14.

Hall, Charles, and Melinda Knuth. “An Update of the Literature Supporting

Gardening has also helped many people deal with

the Well-Being Benefits of Plants:

stress and anxiety, especially during the pandemic. The

Mental Health Benefits of Plants.”

A Review of the Emotional and

effects of plants on mental health, especially during the

Journal of Environmental Horticul-

pandemic, are complex and multidimensional. These

doi:10.24266/0738-2898-37.1.30.

effects can come from various sources, including sun exposure, routine, and connecting with loved ones through

ture, vol. 37, no. 1, 2019, pp. 30–38.,

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Em, Mandi. “How Plants Bring Joy and Control to Our Brains During Chaos.”

gardening.

Greatist, Greatist, 2 Apr. 2020, greatist.com/grow/plants-mental-

Plants have been clinically used as therapy for decades in

health.

the process called Horticultural Therapy. There have been

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extensive publications regarding plants' emotional and

Sub-genial Prefrontal Cortex, the part

mental health benefits, addressing re-duced anxiety and

of the brain associated with anxiety and depression

stress, decreased depression, and enhancing productivity and attention. 14

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Plants and Mental Health:

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Bratman, Gregory N., et al. “Nature Experience Reduces Rumination and Subgenual Prefrontal Cortex tional Academy of Sciences, vol. 112, no. 28, 29 June 2015, doi:10.1073/

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the inside and remind us of when and how to take care of

Activation.” Proceedings of the NaT

Houseplants provide a mirror into how we are doing on ourselves.15 They promote mindfulness, inspire us to keep

pnas.1510459112.

going and remind us that we also need care.

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Rook, Graham A., et al. “Microbial

Studies have also shown that contact with nature reduces rumination and significantly reduces activity in sgPFC16, the part of the brain associated with anxiety and depression.

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Physiologically, even small amounts of

exposure to nature reduce heart rate, blood pressure and change the adrenaline and cortisol levels.

‘Old Friends’, Immunoregulation and Stress Resilience.” Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, vol. 2013, no. 1, 2013, pp. 46–64., doi:10.1093/ emph/eot004.

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Foxx, Christine L., and Christopher A. Lowry. “The Microbiome-Gut-Brain Axis: The Missing Link in Depression.”

Cardiovascular Implications of Stress

Another relatively new theory also suggests the positive

and Depression, 2020, pp. 255–274.,

effects of the microbes found in plants and soils. What

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was described as “old friends microbes” in plants and soil are found to have positive effects on the immune system.18 Newer studies have also shown that these microbiomes can also communicate to the brain through what is described as the “microbiome-gut-brain access”

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-815015-

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Hoisington, Andrew J., et al. “The Microbiome of the Built Environment and Mental Health.” Microbiome, vol.

3, no. 1, 2015, doi:10.1186/s40168015-0127-0.

and “microbiome airway access”19 that promoted mental fitness. These microbes are effective in preventing allergies and asthma and have been proven by experiments to mitigate symptoms of mental disorders.20

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Background

Gardening Changes how People Live Gardening as a hobby can often get out of hand, and before anyone realizes, it has already evolved into a lifestyle. This is especially relevant for pandemic gardeners, as the sudden increase in the amount of free time and extra energy can feed directly into gardening.

Gardening is also a fun, rewarding, and intelligible topic, one that enjoys learning and experimenting can find a great deal of interest and enjoyment from it.

One of the most prominent aspects of gardening is to grow food. Herb gardens are a great start, soon followed by lettuces, tomatoes, and other food species. While what most people produce is often less appealing and not as perfect or impressive as the grocery store alternatives, they for sure will appreciate it more and feel incredibly proud of their produce. I can only suspect that because agriculture was the critical invention for humans to evolve into what we are today, we all find enjoyment and fulfillment from the activity and reward of agriculture.

The gardening experience also alters people’s perception of food and inspires people to look at food dif-ferently. The amount of effort that is being exerted to grow something makes us appreciate more of what was offered to us at the table. But the more we do it and understand what types of effort it takes, the more we realize the current food system. As Michael Pollan has pointed out in his 2008 New York Times article, “Why Bother?”, "Growing some of your own food is one of the best things that you can do to the environment" and can “help heal the split between what you think and what you do”, and “to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen.

Many sacrifices were made to consistently put beautiful fruits, vegetables, and meat onto our table. This goes hand in hand with the food crisis, how much are we spending in terms of resources to produce food, and whether this way of development is sustainable in the long run. Will we lose bananas because of monoculture? Are we overfishing and depleting the sea? These are the questions that we will begin to ask ourselves and wonder what our food system

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will be when we have more population in the near future.

The new normal, the problem with food, and the urban farming movement are three seemingly disjointed topics that are the theoretical backdrop of my thesis. The new normal is bringing different societal func-tions into the living space. The food crisis revealed the inherent problems around the modern food system. The urban farming movement provided an outlet or opportunity for us to deal with the food issues from a bottom-up, decentralized perspective and approach.

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

1.4 Summary:

Here, I view urban farming as a democratizing activity from our current systems of food production and consumption.

This is similar to the democratization of data. Everyone should not only have the right to access and consume, but also the right to understand and contribute. If post-

post pandemic and post information development should

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centralization and specialization, I would say that the

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industrialization develop-ment is characterized by

be characterized by democratization and freedom of knowledge as an individual. Everyone has the capacity and ability to understand and contribute.

With this concept, we should also see a new understanding of the domestic environment and the func-tions of the personal living space. The industrialization has drastically transformed what our homes are like, and I can only expect more for society in the coming transitions.

The pandemic certainly accelerated that change and forced many changes into people and spaces that they are not entirely ready for. Home is no longer the place we stay at when we get off work or after so-cializing, it is where we stay, where we work, and it is where we socialize through the internet.

Food especially reclaimed its significance in the living space. Tiny, almost symbolic kitchens were suddenly burdened with the task of preparing nearly all the foods.

The idea of a dining area, a home function that reduced its significance during development, now forces itself back into the living space.

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Background

Gardening, or the production of food, a function that was almost never intended for the designers of modern apartment living, is now being introduced into these spaces as the owner’s lifestyle. There are botched functionalism approaches, scaled-down conventional practices, and thoughtful inventions of re-sourcefulness.

These are interesting urban developments that are happening right now from the bottom up.

And it is my interest to investigate how such a disjointed concept from urban living found its way into the domestic environment.

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Research Objective

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2.0 Research Objective

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Research Objective

Research Objective

2.0

In the previous chapter, I discussed how three seemingly disjointed topics intertwined themselves and produced a fascinating urban farming phenomenon. People in the urban environment decided to grow their own foods.

This phenomenon is the main focus of this research. I want to investigate how people living in urban conditions managed to grow food in their living space, what caused them to grow foods, and what growing their foods mean to them.

There are many aspects to these questions and many ways of approaching them. For example, how growing food, a practice so opposed to postindustrial development and the information age, found its way into the lives of the urbanized population?

Alternatively, how growing food, an inappropriate activity in the modern urban apartment, manage to exist in these types of spaces.

On a more practical level, are growing food in the urban domestic apartment feasible and significant? Are the quantity and quality up to food standards?

Moving forward, if this becomes an essential part of peo32

ple’s lives, how will this change the design and intended

change how people live? Or is this simply a fleeting fad that will die off right after the pandemic?

Observation and Investigation: The first objective of this research is to make observations and investigations into this phenomenon. Namely, to answer the questions of how people are growing foods in their own homes. Under this objective, the primary concern is not why people do this but to observe and

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

functions of the urban domestic environment? Will this

document how people are doing it simply. We take the phenomenon of people growing their own foods as an established fact, and we merely investigate how they did it to quench our curiosity.

Under this objective, I want to answer the question of

Do these methods fall into those kitchen hacks? Are they

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living space. Are there any patterns that we can follow?

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what methods were used by people to grow foods in their

simply scaled-down versions of traditional farming, or are they making a scaled-down version of those high-tech farms? Are they inventing new technology or adaptations that are particular to the home environment? These are the questions that I wish to answer and find out.

Meaning While this objective seems very vague and unspecific, it leaves space for exploration and unexpectedness during this research. This is a recent phenomenon, and I expect to faithfully record many things during the process. As this research method also suggests, this research expects to also investigate the theories of the individuals performing this task. This freedom serves as a foundation for unbiased and open-mindedness, accepting and documenting what people’s feelings are, regardless of their scientific accuracy, ability to predict outcomes, and personal interest.

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Research Objective

Under this objective, here are the questions that I will investigate and hope to answer: Question 1: What does growing food mean to the urban farmer?

While all the individuals engaged in this movement can be classified as urban farmers and share this common identity, they come from diverse backgrounds and share different stories of how they do this and why they do this. The act of farming can also mean different things to different individuals. These can be out of practical reasons to get particular food that is hard to find in their area. It could be a lifestyle choice to be as sustainable as possible. Therefore they believe that producing their own foods is the most environmentally responsible thing to do.

It may also be a type of meditation and healing process, especially during the pandemic, where mental stress and anxiety have reached an all-time high. Or they might be doing this for the sake of family, educating their children, or doing it as a common task to build relationships and spend time together. Interest could be another reason, their love for nature, curiosity of science, or any other fascinations are fulfilled through this incredibly open and encompassing practice. These are the topics that I wish to explore through this research.

Question 2: What does producing food mean to us in the post-pandemic society?

As I have discussed earlier, the new normal have posed many unique changes and challenges to our society. In an already globalized, yet more than ever separated society, what does food, a commodity that cannot be shared through the internet mean, and what is the production of it like. We take for granted of the convenience of the internet and the ability to get anything on our personal handheld devices. However, food is simply something that you cannot download from your phone. You still need to get it, chew it, and digest it physically. Food in itself raised many issues, including transportation, distribution, safety issues, humanitarian issues, and genetic modifications.

These are black boxes to many of the current generations.

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As the population renews and continues to urbanize, more

from and how animals and plants become what we see on the supermarket shelves as foods.

While food in itself is a vast topic of great importance, it is also an example and indicator for many of the other things that we simply cannot dump online and that we have to interact with directly on a personal level regardless of technology, at least in the near future. This poses many exciting things that we can discuss.

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

and more of us will have no idea of where our food came

Food also transcends culture and identity. Food is one of, if not the most representative aspect of different cultures, and we are all distinct in what we eat and how we eat while being incredibly similar at the same time. Certain ingredients might be the staple diet for some cultures, while not existing or extremely rare in others. Different

globalized society, food helps people connect with differ-

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resulting in drastically different flavors and textures. In a

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cultures might also prepare the same ingredients but

ent cultures while reminding people when they are outside their home environment. In the case of the pandemic, this aspect of food gets magnified, and many people have started growing or making the familiar flavors from their hometown.

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3.0 State of Food

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State of Food

3.0

3.1 Industrialized Farming and Monoculture Monoculture is the agricultural practice of growing a single crop, plant, or livestock species, variety, or breed in a field or farming system at a time. Monoculture is an essential part of today’s food systems, and it is largely why we can produce the amount of food that we need today. Monoculture works in the principle of economy of scale. The more you make something, the easier it gets for a single unit, and the more economical it is for the producer. While monoculture has enabled us to produce the current level of nutrition that we are making now, it is not without problems.

It’s Bananas 21.

Espiner, Tom. “Do We Need to Worry about Banana Blight?” BBC News, BBC, 15 Aug. 2019, www.bbc.com/ news/business-49331286.

Banana is a great example to understand the effects of monoculture and our current state of global food production and supply.

Currently, the global production of bananas is under threat to what is commonly referred to as the Panama disease. This fungal disease causes banana trees to develop rotting on the plant and roots and threaten global banana production. This disease has wiped out banana farms across Asia, and it is finding its way into Latin

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America, which is home to many of the world’s largest banana exporters. 21

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

The business model of banana is quite simple. It is the

Fig. 6

cheapest fresh fruit one would find at a grocery store.

FOR COUNTRIES WHERE BANANA

CURRENT RISK LEVELS OF TR4 IS AN IMPORTANT COMMODITY

and expensive, bananas are available all year round at

Figure From FAO, 2017

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an affordable price. The banana at my local supermarket

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Even in Japan, where fruits are generally local, seasonal,

sells for 95yen a bag, which contains 4-5 bananas. This is cheaper than just one apple, which is considered the staple fruit for its popularity and affordability.

This business model depends on efficient monoculture that can achieve economy of scale. A highly prolific variety, the cavendish banana is the current banana of choice and makes up more than 95% of the total bananas produced. Aside from being prolific, this particular variety is also a good candidate for transportation. It can also be harvested in an unripened state, making it resistant to transportation and ripening during transport or in a ripening room. While it is not the best-tasting variety, it does have the signature banana taste and a clean golden skin, which is also the signature banana look for the developed world. This variety has enabled the banana industry to grow into a multibillion sector and accounts for millions of jobs worldwide. From harvesting to transportation to retail, the entire banana supply chain is built around the size and needs of this variety.

However, this particular variety does not produce seeds, and therefore the plants are all propagated as direct 39

clones of each other. While this is a big blow to biodiver-

State of Food

sity and can cause a whole list of problems, this made the cavendish banana especially prone to disease. The disease can quickly spread between plants and result in a catastrophic loss.

And that is exactly what is happening right now. Since the 1990s, the Tropical Race 4 Fungal Disease has been destroying banana farms around the world. This disease 22.

Kambhampaty, Anna Purna. “What We Can Learn From the NearExtinction of Bananas.” Time, Time, 18 Nov. 2019, time.com/5730790/ banana-panama-disease/.

23.

Michail, Niamh. “Colombia Declares National Emergency as TR4 Banana Disease Confirmed.” Foodnavigator, William Reed Business Media Ltd., 9 Aug. 2019, www.foodnavigator-latam. com/Article/2019/08/09/Colombiadeclares-national-emergency-asTR4-banana-disease-confirmed.

is often referred to as the Panama disease or banana wilt. It started in southeast Asia, then spread its way around central Asia and Australia, into Africa, and recently in 2019, entering South America. Combined with the Caribbean, Latin America produces 75% of the world’s bananas.22 Countries such as Columbia have declared a national state of emergency 23 since so many people’s livelihood depends on the banana industry. Strict sanitation measures have been in place all over the region in banana farms. Nonetheless, fields after fields of banana farms are being affected, wilted down, and had to be cleared out to prevent further infections.

This will create an immense shock to the global food supply and major economic consequences as so many countries and individuals depend on bananas.

However, this is not the first time that this had happened.

Before the 1950s, another variety of bananas, the Gros Michel banana, was the banana of choice. It was similar to the cavendish, but slightly bigger and more delicious, according to many. During the 60s however, it was also affected by a fungal disease, which quickly wiped out nearly all of the plants. The cavendish was a disease-resistant replacement for the Gros Michel banana, having similar taste, appearance, and resilience to transportation.

The issue this time, however, is that there is no clear replacement for the cavendish banana. The banana industry has grown even bigger so that even if there is a replacement discovered, it will still take a long time for the transition and cause a serious shock to the global food supply.

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world are racing to solve the issue. However, this gives us a great example of how our heavy reliance on monoculture creates massive holes of vulnerabilities in our food system. In addition to the shock in the food supply, severe environmental issues come with monoculture. Vibrant ecosystems of rainforests are being converted into farms, and when disease strike, it becomes empty fields of dead zones.

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

The banana story is ongoing, and scientists around the

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State of Food

3.2 Controlled Environment Farming The new trend of development in the food production industry is controlled environment farming. This was often touted as the excellent alternative for industrialized farming. Controlled environment farming is an evolved version of industrial farming, where more aspects can be under stringent control, and many issues are eliminated as a result. There are many methods for controlled environment farming, and people have given them many names. These include vertical farming, high-tech farming, and the list goes on.

The main argument for controlled environment farming is that we can produce more food with less resources. The smaller footprint can reduce the ecological impact of land and water use. In theory, a well-controlled environment also eliminates the need to use pesticides and herbicides, making food production safer and more sustainable. With controlled environment farming, some claim to produce as much as 400 times as many crops as traditional farming with the same area and save up to 95% less water. Due to these qualities, they can also be built near cities, where transportation is shortened, and we have higher quality, fresher vegetables with less environmental impact.

However, it is still not the silver bullet, as while it does solve and mitigate some problems, it introduces a host of others.

The Cost of Controlled Environment Farming First, these farms are extremely expensive to build and run. One of these food factories can cost as high as $39 million, and the running cost for lighting, power, and air 24.

Nicholson C.F., Harbick K., Gómez M.I., Mattson N.S. (2020) An Economic and Environmental Comparison of Conventional and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Supply Chains for Leaf Lettuce to US Cities. In: Aktas E., Bourlakis M. (eds) Food Supply Chains in Cities.

Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34065-

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0_2

conditioning can be much higher than traditional farming.24 As a result, the cost of producing food in these farms can be as high as ten times the cost to grow produce than a regular dirt farm.

times more for these vegetables. While this is a viable 25

25.

Barbosa, Guilherme L., Francisca D.A. Gadelha, Natalya Kublik, Alan Proctor,

business right now and that people are willing to put in

Lucas Reichelm, Emily Weissinger,

the extra for premium quality, this is undoubtedly not the

Halden 2015. "Comparison of Land,

Gregory M. Wohlleb, and Rolf U.

utopia that was promised with these technologies. And

Water, and Energy Requirements of

eventually, an uneconomical system is not a sustainable

vs. Conventional Agricultural

system.

Lettuce Grown Using Hydroponic Methods" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 12, no. 6: 6879-6891. https://

Alongside their high monetary cost, it was surprising that

doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120606879

these systems also generate a larger carbon footprint than industrialized field farms, according to some calcu-

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

On the consumption side, consumers pay on average five

lations. A number of papers have studied the lifecycle impact of a kilogram of lettuce in a vertical farm and found they can emit up to 4 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent for every kilogram of lettuce grown. One Washington Post reporter writes that vertical farms could generate as much as 7 to 20 times more greenhouse gases than 26.

Savings on transportations are also negligible, as lead

Farming Help Us Feed the Planet -

scientist Paul West at the Global Landscapes Initiative at

WP Company, 17 June 2016, www.

or Hurt It?” The Washington Post,

the University of Minnesota asserts that 80% of a farm’s

washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/

carbon emissions are created on the farm, making food

help-us-feed-the-planet--or-hurt-

miles negligible. And the types of crops that are being

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Haspel, Tamar. “Will Indoor, Vertical

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outdoor farms in places with heavy fossil fuel use.26

food/will-indoor-vertical-farmingit/2016/06/16/f1faaa98-3332-11e68ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html

produced, when grown outdoors, already tend to have low emissions footprints. Controlled environment farming is therefore tinkering between the edges of both economic and environmental sustainability.

The Value of Controlled Environment Farming.

But controlled environment farming still has other benefits. And with developing technology in lighting and climate control, we may see controlled environment farming tipping the sustainability scale back.

First, eliminating the use of pesticides and growing in a controlled environment has great benefits for food safety.

Another point is biodiversity, or in this case, food diversity.

Traditional farms rely on monoculture of selected variants of crops. These are chosen primarily for their hardiness towards climate, pests, disease, and transportation. As a result, they destroy vibrant ecosystems and end up with 43

bland tasting, tough textured, and limited selection crops.

State of Food

With controlled environment farming, we will be able to enjoy many more varieties of food grown in controlled environments while returning some of the farmlands back to nature.

Land use and water usage is also an honest and irrefutable benefit. We are indeed able to grow more with less land and water. This can be very important for selected regions, where density is high and or water is scarce, and farms in these regions such as NYC, are already achieving economic viability. In the near future, when the global population reaches new heights, controlled environment farming is also many people’s answer to developing a more efficient and productive food system to meet growing demands.

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Another alternative to industrial farming is decentralized farming. This covers various farming operations and participants characterized by smaller scale, individual or community-driven, and a focus on sustainable practice rather than efficiency. These can include permaculture farms, organic gardens, as well as community gardens, and home gardens. Over the past decade, urban farming also became a prevalent practice.

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3.3 Decentralized Farming

The main holdback for decentralized farming is that it is often not as efficient and easily scalable as industrialized monoculture. However, these decentralized farming practices can work great in the urban farming setting, as the urban conditions limit its growth. They can comfortably maintain that balance they need by providing more sus ADS

costs.

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tainable and better-quality products to offset the higher

This new movement in decentralized urban farming is the focus of this study, and more specifically, this research focuses on decentralized urban agriculture in the domestic environment.

What’s interesting about this phenomenon is that people from various backgrounds with various skillsets come up with different solutions to the same common goal, growing food. They also have different agendas for growing food, the purpose of one can be drastically different than the other. Therefore it is fascinating to study this united yet fragmented movement.

A very significant episode and what many consider the project that kickstarted the urban farming movement is the windows farms project. This is a community-designed indoor hydroponic growing system. The system itself worked okay, however, the community surrounding it, which experimented with and developed the design, is the actual significant contribution of this project. While this growing system slowly faded over time, this community kept on “growing” and developed many more subsequent projects designs and businesses.

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3.3.1 Window Farms The window farms project was the pioneer for decentralized farming, both in establishing the concept and establishing the basis for the massive community surrounding decentralized urban farming today. Therefore, its successes and failures are important references to this research and represent many other similar projects, initiation, and products. Following is a dedicated case study on the windows farm project.

Fig. 7 WindowFarms https://web.archive.org/ web/20140213193403/https://store. windowfarms.com/parts.html

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

In 2008 windows farms creator Britta Riley built the first windows farm with her friends in her 5th floor Brooklyn apartment window. She was inspired by Michael Pollan’s New York Times article, “Why Bother” and decided that she should adopt gardening and produce some of her own food.

Riley was faced with the limitations of her New York City apartment. After a process that she described as R&DI-Y, Research and Develop It Yourself, she came up with the first iteration of the windows farm project.

The resulting system is, in essence, a small-scale do-ityourself vertical hydroponic drip system. The system is constructed using recycled plastic bottles and standard

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plumbing supplies. In her hydroponic system, water with

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added nutrients is being pumped from a reservoir to a top distribution tube. The nutrient mixture then trickles down from bottle to bottle, watering and nourishing the plants and eventually returns to the reservoir until the pump is turned on again and the cycles continue. This first iteration of her system has a plant capacity of 25 plants, and she claimed that it could produce her one salad per week,

Fig. 8 WindowFarms Diagram https://web.archive.org/ web/20140406155350/http:// www.windowfarms.com/whatis-a-windowfarm/

all year round.

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Riley claims that her system costs as little as $1.58 US dollars a year to run for a two-column system and as little as $3.16 US dollars a year to run for a four-column system. This calculation was conducted based on running the pumps at 15-minute equal intervals throughout the day and night, meaning that the system consumes energy for half of its total run time. This equates to 4383 hours annually, and with an average energy cost of $0.12 USD per kilowatt-hour for US residents, and 3W pumps that they included and recommend equates to the hours mentioned above.

In February 2009, the project was further developed by Britta Riley and her then partner Rebecca Bray through an artist’s residency at Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology in New York. The project received sponsorship from Submersible Design, Riley and Bray’s interactive design firm.

Online Community Although Riley was widely considered a pioneer in doit-yourself small scale indoor hydroponic systems, her bigger accomplishment was building an online community focused on urban farming. The window farms system itself is very simple, straightforward, and left plenty of room for interventions and modifications. The community was launched in 2009 and quickly attracted thousands of contributors worldwide to improve the design and provide additional add-ons and features.

Her project coincided nicely with the beginning of the open-source maker movement and took off as one of the notable projects from that era. She described the opensource development of her project as “web 2.0 Crowd Sourcing Innovation” and made links to open-source software development to illustrate the nature of her project’s development.

Her idea was that ordinary people could freely take her designs off the internet, make modifications and improvements, and submit their designs back to her where they

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can be shared on her website to benefit more people. She

“this capacity to “organize without hierarchical organization” will be a fundamental shift in our society brought about by the web over the coming decades. The window farms core team presses past crowdsourcing into “mass collaboration” with an opensource collaboration model, modified for physical mechanical & biological systems, called R&D-I-Y (research and develop it yourself).”

“Crowd Sourcing Innovation”

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

and her colleague, web theorist Clay Shirky believed that

The “mass collaborations” resulted in numerous significant design and system changes. Most notably, using an airlift pump instead of a conventional rotary pump reduces power usage and increases energy efficiency.

The first iteration of the Windowfarms system suggested using an ECO PLUS 264 or a ECO PLUS 633 pump, a

very massive for such systems and is often used for com-

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all the nutrients to a top distribution tube. The pump is

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rotary pump connected to a single reservoir and pumped

mercial-scale hydroponics or aquaculture. This setup was inefficient in two regards. First, her approach is extremely vertical, sometimes exceeding 2 meters of elevation. The pump will need to pump the water up for approximately 2 meters on most occasions. Conventional pumps are very inefficient at creating pressure and pumping up water to heights. At the height of 2 meters, regardless of how small her systems and the required flow rate were, they require an immensely powerful pump. High power pumps also often have a high flow rate, making the plumbing system highly unmanageable. This system is much better suited for a high-pressure low volume pump, for example, a dosing pump, where a flexible tube is being sequentially squeezed between an outer chamber and a set of wheels.

Or an airlift, like the design, was later adjusted into, that is much more efficient at raising small amounts of water to high elevations.

Second, the single reservoir tube was inefficient at evenly distributing nutrient solutions to the separate columns.

Riley initially used a single PVC tube with holes drilled to distribute water down to the separate columns. Not only is this system prone to blockage and leaking, but 49

the system cannot guarantee even distribution between

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the columns, resulting in certain columns getting more water than others. This problem persisted in the finalized design and even their Kickstarter product.

Another significant system change was the addition of artificial lighting. Riley’s initial system did not include any lighting. The idea was to use the natural lighting from the window to grow the plants. However, the plants lacked light and showed signs of light deficiency by growing long thin stems and leaning heavily to the side where there is light exposure. In later directions, Riley suggested that users should install supplementary light using an array of 27w CFL bulbs on clip lights and turn them on for several hours a day. LED was also suggested. However, during that time around 2010, LED bulbs are still expensive, therefore, not economical. The 27w CFL bulbs are, in many cases, still not powerful enough for healthy plant growth, and the exposed CFL bulbs loosely hanging near free-flowing water, and thin plastic may pose a safety hazard. The lighting issue was a repeated topic that was brought up in the internet forums. However, the additional lighting was never officially incorporated into all 3 versions of system building guidelines, and that the additional lighting was also not a part of the Kickstarter product kit.

The lighting plays a big part in growing plants. The three major things that a plant will need is light water and nutrients. In this case, Riley almost neglected one of the three primary requirements of plants. The reasons for this I suspect are as following.

First, lighting is very energy-intensive. The window farms project has a sustainable goal at the very beginning.

While they never officially gave out any actual energy usage data, they always claim that their system is much more environmentally friendly than traditional farming.

Using the practical technologies of that time, the case with lighting is not very energy efficient and will dispute the sustainability claims that they were advertising. Second, lighting is expensive. The DIY nature of the project does not coincide with spending hundreds of dollars on specialty lighting equipment, and the following Kickstart-

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er campaign was already considered expensive, having no

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

room for expensive lighting kits that can double or triple the $300 USD price tag.

Commercial Failure In 2010, despite the original intent of organizing the Windowfarms platform as a non-profit, Britta Riley chose to enter into business and started selling Windoesfarms trademarked products online. Britta Riley became the founder and CEO of Windowfarms TM and, through two Kickstarter campaigns, raised over $285,000 to design and manufacture the Windowfarms product.

One year after funding succeeded, the Windowfarms team made a final update to the Kickstarter project page, announcing that domestic orders have been fulfilled.

However, many customers reported that they never

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received their product despite their claims, and the team

Britta Riley estimated Windowfarms’ delivery for December 2012. However, until 2014, International backers never received their product nor received a refund for their

27.

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attracted numerous controversies and complaints.

Canadians Feel Ripped Off By Firm Aided Via Kickstarter". HuffPost Canada. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2018.

Kickstarter investment. Windowfarms ignored inquiries, phone calls, or emails, while Britta Riley continued to promote herself and her product to be sold in the US market, with the Windowfarms kit starting from $199 to $300 US dollars.

Some of their customers and online community contributors were furious and claimed that: “Windowfarms’ definition and mission is ambiguous.” Canadian and international backers feel ripped-off, as they never got their promised product. Legally, the community contributed designs for the Windowfarms were released under a Creative Commons license, which should be Non-Commercial. However, Britta Riley and her company continue selling the kits for profit. In July 2013, CBC News published an article explaining how Canadian and international backers feel ripped-off by Britta Riley, co-founder of the Windowfarms.27 In 2016, the company went out of business and was fully dissolved without sufficient assets to offset its debts.

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Conclusion This story was a great snapshot of how the open-source community can both enable and curse a project. Although knowledge is plenty, proper gathering of information and specialized expertise is still crucial. Ten years afterward, with more knowledge, research, and development, it is not hard to see why the windows farm design is flawed.

The unique concept of using bottles to grow vegetables is a very limiting and inefficient way for food production.

The size of the bottles limited the plant's growth and increased the number of interconnected parts of the system significantly. In other words, it is prone to leakage and hard to expand into a bigger scale. The completely vertical design, and the lack of concern towards lighting requirements, meant that it is tough for the plants to get sufficient and efficient lighting, one of the three main things a plant needs to survive. Technology also played a role in this case, as LEDs were not as popular or accessible in 2010. Today, with the development in LED technology, they are much cheaper and energy-efficient. Given this case, the Windowfarms might have addressed the lighting problems better, and while this will not save from commercial failure, the project can at least stand on its own.

While the project was blessed by the community of opensource innovation and crowd source funding, the community also gave the project many vanity metrics, and the open-source spirit prevented it from properly entering the market and monetizing.

The failure of windows farm does not dismiss the idea of farming in homes and buildings. This project inspired many individuals to develop the concept further and pushed the overall urban farming movement. Has the online community website not been taken down by Riley. It would have been a great resource online, even to this day.

However, the good news is that since then, much better systems and more resilient communities have popped up all over the world. Online knowledge sharing and discus-

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also provided a more stable, more professional, and truly open source platform for sharing knowledge, hardware, and software.

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sion platforms such as Reddit, GitHub , and Thingieverse

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4.0 Method

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Method

Method

4.0

The primary methods of this research consist of two parts, a general survey of the online urban farming community and focused case studies of selected urban farmers. The general survey aims to broaden my knowledge of the current urban farming scene, understanding how people are farming in the urban domestic environment, and select suitable subjects for case studies. The survey aims to answer how people are farming in the urban domestic environment, given the challenges with limited space, time, and the innovations or adaptions that allowed urban farming possible in the domestic space. The case studies focus on why people farm in the urban domestic space as opposed to how. This process looks deeper into the individuals practicing urban farming in their homes, and from both primary and secondary sources, try to find connections and purposes on their actions.

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To define the term: Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment, I have decided the following three characteristics to define the subject and scope of this research.

Individually Operated: The first criteria is that the research subject needs to be operated and maintained by an individual or a family.

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

4.1 Classification:

This rules out any large scale farms or community farms, which is not the focus of this research.

This criteria was put in because the focus of the study is to investigate the effects when normal population starts to produce food, and what inspired those individuals as well as their agenda and reason for farming.

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The second criteria is that a significant portion of the subject needs to be growing food crops as opposed to flowers or plants as decoration and landscape feature. This rule out any family garden that is used as a landscape feature.

This criteria was put in place to make sure that the research can distinguish itself form studies conducted on horticulture and horticultural therapy, which studies the effects of plants in the urban environment. This research focuses on food production, not plants in general.

In the Urban Domestic Space: The third criteria is that the subject needs to be in a urban or suburban setting, where it and its owner can be considered part of the city. This can include apartments, condominiums, and single-family houses that is well connected to the city and belongs to a residential community.

This rule out any dedicated family farms, or large estates where land is plentiful, and the owner can perform traditional methods of farming while being detached from the urban environment.

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Method

This criteria was put in place as the a main focus of this study was to investigate how farming for food can be integrated into the urban setting, and how have the owners circumvented the limitations of urban living to perform farming activities, which is usually not designed for their particular environment.

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The survey is conducted on various online communities and platforms and focuses more on variety and diversity than details and documentation qualities. This survey looks at tutorials and documentation on the internet and small entrepreneurial projects or products that share the similar spirit of DIY urban farming.

The primary advantage of an online survey is the quantity of information that I was able to cover, especially

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

4.2 Survey & Catalog

given the pandemic and that unnecessary outings and meetings with people are not recommended. On the flip side, however, the quality of documentation on different subjects varies drastically. While some have extensive documentation, photographs, and datasheets, some are documented more casually, with only a couple of pictures and minimal description.

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The findings of this survey will be presented as a catalog

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for urban farming techniques. The format of the catalog was inspired by the guidebook format from the book’ “Made in Tokyo” by Momoyo Kaijima, Junzo Kuroda, and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto. This format was selected because of the following reasons. First, this diagram approach to documentation unifies the collection of objects. It presents them in an orderly and comparable way, which helps the reader better understand the content and compare or contrasts between subjects. Second, the scalelessness of these documentations places more focus on the object themselves, in the context of how people are farming in the urban domestic space. While scale is an important aspect, the critical information is understanding how practical farming is achieved in the urban domestic space. Thirdly, the simplicity of this documentation and omission of certain irrelevant information helps expand the scope of this survey, as less time focuses on finding sometimes unreliable data or information, and more time is made available to document a broader collection of urban farming methods.

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Method Fig. 9 Guidebook Format, “Made in Tokyo” Kaijima, Momoyo, et al. Made in Tokyo. Kajima Institute Publishing Co., Ltd., 2018.

The key difference between the guidebook format from “Made in Tokyo” and the catalog for urban farming methods is the omission of a picture of the subject. This was because while the subjects in Made in Tokyo are all distinct objects, the methods collected in the catalog often have many similar iterations made by different people. Certain design choices were made to extract a quintessential design out of many reference photos and documentations, and therefore no one photo can represent each subject that was collected. Designers are also omitted because of this, as these are community developed systems that do not have a singular design or designer. However, when a particular product was chosen as the subject’s reference, the product name is recorded as part of the descriptions.

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To investigate the research objective of why people are farming in their urban domestic space, I have selected the following five case studies out of the hundreds of subjects that I have surveyed. While the catalogue might have provided information on what are the specific methods that people have used to produce food in the urban domestic setting, it does not answer some of the deeper questions such as how they integrated these activities into their lives, how much of their floor area, time, and energy were

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4.3 Case Study

dedicated to producing food, and what producing food means to them. Therefore, it is crucial to take an in-depth look at some representative individuals and answer those questions respectively.

Selection Criteria: ADS

different methods that they used for urban farming and

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Five subjects are chosen because they represent the the different agenda to urban farming. They are persistent and experienced individuals in urban farming. Many of them have been farming in the urban environment for over ten years. While some of them are heavily inspired by the pandemic and are relatively new to farming, they have dedicated enough attention and time to this activity that I believe it has already become an essential aspect of their lives.

These five subjects also come from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds, are at different age groups, and live in different urban conditions. This allows me to cover a broad range of the challenges, agenda, and techniques for urban farming and a balanced mix of their urban farming agenda.

Other criteria for selection include the amount of information available for me to properly study and document them and the availability of secondary research material to understand their operation and agenda better.

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Method

Case Study Subjects: The selected subjects for the case study are as follows.

Epic Gardening: Kevin Espiritu, Based in San Diego California, United States Farming in a small urban front yard (15 by 30 feet) Farming organic food for practical food consumption Rob’s Aquaponic Systems: Rob Bod, Based in Ipswich, South East Queensland, Australia.

Farming in a Suburban Backyard Efficient and economical DIY Aquaponic farming using recycled or repurposed materials.

Hanna Joe’s Balcony Aquaponic Farm Hanna Joe, Based in Singapore Farming in a High-Rise Luxury Condominium, Balcony Urban Resilience Her 86m2 Thuy Dao, Based in Undisclosed Town in Germany Farming in an Apartment Block Balcony Lifestyle, Healing, Culture Micro Acers David & Kirstin Barchard, based in Calgary, Canada Farming in Suburban Basement Farming for profit

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5.1 Catalog

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tralized farming methods used by various individuals in the urban domestic setting.

List of Subjects: 1. PET Bottle 2. Milk Cartons 3. Containers Pots 4. 2x6 Raised Beds 5. Cinder Block Raised Bed Containers

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

The following catalog consists of a collection of decen-

6. Metal Raised Beds 7. Brick Inground Bed 8. Greenhouse 9. Chopped Barrel Planters 10. DIY Wood Planters 11. Self-Watering Raised Bed

14. Microgreens Growing Rack

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13. Vertical Soil Growing System

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12. Climate Control Wicking Bed

15. Mason Jar Herb Garden 16. Kratky Bucket 17. Hydroponic Floating Rack 18. Hydroponic Container 19. Hydroponic Bucket 20. Vertical Hydroponic Bottles (window farms) 21. Vertical Hydroponic Pipes 22. Vertical Hydroponic Tower (tower garden) 23. Vertical NFT System 24. Automated NFT System 25. Aquaponic Crate 26. Container Aquaponic System 27. Barrell Chop and Flip 28. Chopped Barrel Aquaponic System 29. IBC Tank Chop and Flip 30. IBC Tank Aquaponic System 31. Dutch Bucket 32. Aquaponic Floating Raft 33. Goldfish Architecture 34. Vertical Goldfish Architecture 35. Vertical NFT Aquaponic 36. VolksGarden

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01

PET bottle cut open

potting soil

PET Bottle

Type: repurposed container Medium: soil - growing container made using recycled PET bottles - good for small plants and germination -DIY low tech 70

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02

potting soil

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milk carton cut open

Milk Cartons Type: repurposed container Medium: soil - growing container made using recycled milk cartons - good for small plants and germination - DIY low tech

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03 plant cage

plant stakes container

soil

Containers Pots Type: container Medium: soil - off the shelf container pots - various styles and sizes - can accommodate a variety of plants 72

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04 plant cage

garden tralles

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soil fastners

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2x4 lumber

2x6 Raised Beds Type: raised bed/inground bed Medium: soil - raised bed made using dimensional lumber - can be made into various styles and sizes - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate a variety of plants 73

- can also be fitted with self-watering systems

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05 alternating pattern

cinder blocks

cinder block planter soil

cinder block raised bed

Cinder Block Raised Bed Containers Type: raised bed/container Medium: soil - repurposed vessel - DIY raised bed using cinder blocks - can accommodate a variety of plants - smaller plants can also grow in the hollow part of the cinder block 74

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06 self watering system soil

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corrigated metal big bed

small bed

Metal Raised Beds Brand Name: Birdies Raised Beds Type: raised bed Medium: soil - steel raised beds made using modular components - can also be fitted with self-watering systems 75

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self watering system

bricks

Brick Inground Bed Type: inground bed Medium: soil - inground bed made using bricks - can be made into various styles and sizes - can be made with various laying patterns - can accommodate a variety of plants 76

- can be fitted with self-watering systems

soil

green house structure

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cladding

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Greenhouse Type: enclosure

- can shelter plants from extreme weather - temperature and humidity control - help plants overwinter

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09 wood rack

chopped barrels

use as container

Chopped Barrel Planters Type: repurposed container Medium: soil - can be chopped in various ways to accommodate different plants - need to also drill holes for drainage - weather resistant material

stacking

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10 soil tralles

raised planter

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tralles protective cover

requires liner small planter

wood planter

DIY Wood Planters Type: raised bed/container Medium: soil - planter made with wood - can be made into various styles and sizes - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate a variety of plants 79

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11 fiberglass tub

control module self watering system

soil

stand

Self-Watering Raised Bed Brand Name: Eco Garden

- raised bed with automated self-watering - outdoor use - one piece fiberglass tub

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12 permeable mesh mist irrigation

water wicking bed

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metal stand

water reservoir wheel or block

Climate Control Wicking Bed Brand Name: Vegepod

- water wicking bed with permeable mesh and mist irrigation - outdoor use - grow bed can wick water from reservoir through capillary action - semi-automated system - does not require power 81

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watering reservoir

soil

grow pods

base plate

Vertical Soil Growing System Brand Name: Green Stock

- vertical system using soil - outdoor use - modular stackable system - water automatically delivers to all pods form reservoir - good for small plants and germination 82

microgreens growing rack system

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circulation fan

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wheels

growing trey

LED grow light

Microgreens Growing Rack Type: Microgreens Trey Rack Medium: soil/coconut fiber - the most common type of microgreens growing technique - scalable, can be made into a factory - can grow a variety of microgreens and offset the growing schedule so that there’s harvest everyday 83

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15 jar with water inside

placed next to window for natural light

Mason Jar Herb Garden Type: Passive Hydroponic

Medium: nutrient solution, water - the simplest form of hydroponic system - requires no electricity, no water or air circulation, and little maintenance - can grow small herb plants 84

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16 cut hole in lid

net cup with growing media

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put nutrient solution in bucket

Kratky Bucket

note: Professor Bernard A. Kratky popularized non-circulationg hydroponic systems Type: passive hydroponic -practical and simple form of hydroponic system - requires no electricity, no water or air circulation - can grow lettuce or leafy greens - set it and leave it, no maintenance during the life cycle of certain lettuce plants.

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17 sheet foam folating rack

nutrient solution water holding vessel net cups

Hydroponic Floating Rack Type: passive hydroponic Medium: floating rack -practical and simple form of hydroponic system - requires no electricity, no water or air circulation, and little maintenance - can grow lettuce or leafy greens - scalable system, can grow a large amount of crops 86

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cut hole in container lid T ADS

net cups

nutrient water resivour

air pump

Hydroponic Container Type: simple hydroponic

Medium: nutrient solution - simple form of hydroponic system - can grow lettuce or leafy greens - aeration promotes plant growth 87

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19 net cup with growing media

cut hole in lid

put nutrient solution in bucket air pump

Hydroponic Bucket Type: simple hydroponic

Medium: nutrient solution - practical and simple form of hydroponic system - made with repurposed materials - can grow lettuce or leafy greens - aeration promotes plant growth 88

water distribution pipe

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cut PET bottle

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net cups place system under natural sunlight

water resivour

water feed pipe

Vertical Hydroponic Bottles Type: Microgreens Trey Rack AKA: window farms Medium: hydroponic drip - extremely space efficient - can grow lettuce, herbs or leafy greens - can be made using recycled materials 89

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21 water distribution pipe PVC connector

place system under natural sunlight

net cups

water resivour

water feed pipe

Vertical Hydroponic Pipes Medium: hydroponic drip - space efficient - can grow lettuce, herbs or leafy greens - can be made using repurposed materials - scalable design, suitable for expanded applications 90

water is circulated from top to bottom

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stackable units T ADS

water resivour

Vertical Hydroponic Tower Brand Name: Tower Garden Medium: hydroponic drip - space efficient - can grow lettuce, herbs or leafy greens - simple maintenance - stackable and scalable design, can be used for expanded applications 91

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23 NFT (nutrient film technique) system

nutrient gully

growing rack

net cups

water resivour

water return pipe water feed pipe

Vertical NFT System Type: NFT (nutrient film technique) Hydroponic

Medium: NFT (nutrient film technique, a thin layer of running water with dissolved nutrients) - aquaponic system made using entirely PVC channels, pipes, and connectors - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate leafy green plants such as lettuce and kale 92

NFT (nutrient film technique) system

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nutrient gully control box

net cups

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concentrated nutrients

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nutrient dosing pump

water feed split

water feed pipe water pump water quality sensors: pH, tempreture, EC water return pipe

Automated NFT System Type: NFT (nutrient film technique) Hydroponic

Medium: NFT (nutrient film technique, a thin layer of running water with dissolved nutrients) - full automation for climate and nutrient control - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate leafy green plants such as lettuce and kale 93

- scalable system, the control and automation units can also be used on other systems

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25 overflow water feed pipe growing media

crate as grow bed

crate as fish tank

Aquaponic Crate Type: Simple Aquaponic

Medium: clay pebbles/ lava rock - aquaponic system made using crates - one of the simplest aquaponic designs - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate a variety of plants 94

storage container as grow bed

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26 water feed pipe

growing media

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storage container as sump

storage container as fish tank

Container Aquaponic System Type: Simple Aquaponic Medium: water - aquaponic system made using storage containers - primarily design objective as an aquarium for goldfish - grows floating plants such as duckweed and water hyacinth - can produce food (duckweed) for ornamental fish too 95

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27 water overflows back to the fish tank water is pumped into the top growing media such as clay balls

grow bed opening for feeding fish tank

barrell chopped into two parts

Barrell Chop and Flip Type: Simple Aquaponic

Medium: clay pebbles/ lava rock - aquaponic system made using barrels - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate a variety of plants 96

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28 growing medium water feed pipe

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chopped barrel as grow bed

water return pipe

chopped barrel as fish tank

Chopped Barrel Aquaponic System Chopped Barrel Aquaponic System Type: Aquaponic System Medium: clay pebbles/ lava rock - aquaponic system made using barrels - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate a variety of plants 97

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29 growing media such as clay balls water overflows back to the fish tank

water is pumped into the top

grow bed

fish tank

IBC tank and cage chopped into two parts

IBC Tank Chop and Flip Type: ebb and flow (flood and drain) Aquaponic Medium: clay pebbles/ lava rock - aquaponic system made using IBC tanks - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate a variety of plants

draining valve remains useful

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

30 growing media such as clay balls

water overflows back to the fish tank

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grow bed fish tank

IBC tank and cage chopped to make sump and grow bed

sump draining valve

radio flow settler solids filter

IBC Tank Aquaponic System Type: ebb and flow (flood and drain) Aquaponic Medium: clay pebbles/ lava rock - aquaponic system made using IBC tanks, barrels, and rainwater tanks - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate a variety of plants 99

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31 growing medium

bucket as grow bed water feed split

water return pipe

Dutch Bucket

water pump

Type: specialty aquaponic system Medium: clay pebbles/ lava rock - aquaponic system made using buckets - can be made with various techniques or connectors - can accommodate fruiting plants such as tomatoes

water feed pipe

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fish tank

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

32 water return pipe sheet foam folating rack

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net cups

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raised water bed

water feed pipe

Aquaponic Floating Raft Type: Large Scale Aquaponic System Medium: floating raft - reliable and effective aquaponic design - suitable for large scale applications - scalable design - can be made with various techniques or connectors 101

- can accommodate a variety of plants

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storage container as hydroponic container

aquarium filter

storage container as fish tank

Goldfish Architecture Type: specialty aquaponic system

- aquaponic system made using storage containers and wood - primarily design objective as an aquarium for goldfish - grows leafy greens and herbs

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grow rack

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

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grow treys

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circulation pipes

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grow light

grow light

electrics box

storage container as fish tank

aquarium filter

Vertical Goldfish Architecture Type: specialty aquaponic system

- aquaponic system made using storage containers and wood - primarily design objective as an aquarium for goldfish - grows microgreens, leafy greens and herbs

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35 light diffuser

water return pipe

NFT pipes

fish tank

water feed pipe

Vertical NFT Aquaponic Type: Large Scale Aquaponic System

Medium: NFT (nutrient film technique) aquaponic - large scale vertical aquaponic design - suitable for large scale applications - scalable design - can be made with various techniques or connectors 104

- effective at producing large quantities of leafy greens

high intensity light

rotating hydroponic wheel

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dip trey

water resivour water feed pipe

VolksGarden

Type: specialty hydroponic system - rotating hydroponic system - impressive design and efficient use of space and energy - single light source used to its fullest extent - rotation automatically switches between dry and wet conditions for the plant 105

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Discoveries: During the survey and documentation for the catalogue, I have discovered some interesting facts about urban farming methods.

Function over Food: One of the most intriguing aspects of these urban farming methods is that the designer often focuses more on the methods and systems than on the system’s ability to produce food. One interesting phenomenon I find is that there is much more interest surrounding the “high tech” growing methods than simper and more traditional growing methods, despite the fact that these high-tech systems are generally more complicated, more costly, and in many situations not as productive as the simple soil container. There’s almost an obsession with developing and perfecting these systems, that it almost seems overpowering to grow and produce food.

Some common goals for developing the “perfect” system include achieving full automation and total control over the environmental parameters to arrive at a fully automated controlled environment farming system. Efforts were also made to make more efficient use of resources. These can include the footprint and volume of the system, developing the smallest working system, and the electricity and water required to minimize the environmental impact of producing food.

Many of these inventions have even made their way to the commercial market, as many interesting and unique growing systems documented here are commercially available products developed from DIY systems.

Personally, I also have a similar obsession with the more complicated high-tech farming systems and generally prefer these systems over traditional growing methods using soil and containers. My interest is in aquaponics using ornamental fish, in my case, goldfish. While my goal includes producing food, my goal is also to create a sustainable living environment for the ornamental fish

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through the aquaponic process. The core concept of

between fish and plants, where fish waste is utilized as nutrition for the plants, and the plants extract these nutrients from the water body, which can be toxic to the fish. My focus then is to create an efficient and reliable system that can keep fish living healthy while producing some food for myself and the fish as a by-product. In my instance, I also pay attention to the overall aesthetics of the systems. During this survey, I find similar particularities to be typical.

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

the aquaponic system is to use a symbiotic relationship

Such obsession and particularity just show that while the community is connected by the common goal of producing food in their urban domestic space, each individual also has their own interest and agenda under this theme.

Oftentimes the production of food is not of primary concern, or at least productivity isn’t the single most important driving force for a lot of the system design.

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Space Efficiency

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One central theme that a lot of these urban farming methods address is space efficiency. Space is a major concern when it comes to decentralized urban farming, as there is no dedicated space for growing food in the urban domestic space. Therefore every inch of space dedicated to farming is squeezed out of the normal functions of the home. As the pandemic hits and more functions need to be re-introduced to the living space, there leaves even less space for growing.

Therefore, many systems are designed with space efficiency in mind or used space efficiency as the primary concern when designing these systems. This could also explain why high-tech farming systems are generally more popular in the urban farming community. With these high-tech systems and their promises, one can expect to grow a significant amount of food in the footprint of a typical household appliance. Systems such as tabletop herb gardens or other small-scale hydroponic growing systems do not take up more space than a microwave oven or a washing machine. Therefore, they have the appeal to urban living where space is limited. Vertically expandable 107

systems are also examples of space-efficient systems.

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Repurposed and Recycled Materials Another common theme with these methods is the use of recycled or repurposed materials. Especially in hydroponic and aquaponic applications, as water-tight containers are a requirement, many people opt for repurposed or recycled containers as either nutrient water reservoirs, fish tanks, or grow beds.

Some examples of repurposed and recycled materials include food and drink containers, such as PET bottles, glass jars, or milk cartons, which can be used as small containers for germination, soil, or even passive hydroponic. Another popular category of repurposed materials is buckets and barrels, which can be cut or chopped in half to act as hydroponic containers or fish tanks. These are much cheaper than dedicated containers for hydroponics or aquaponics and are also much easier to acquire. Therefore, some common sizes such as the five-gallon bucket and 100-gallon barrel have even become a standard material for the urban farming community.

Bigger containers, such as IBC tanks and rainwater tanks, are also extensively used for hydroponics and hydroponics.

There are few alternatives to these widely available off-theshelf watertight containers.

The popularity of recycled and repurposed materials in urban farming could be attributed to the environmental, self-sufficiency, and resilience mindsets common among urban farmers. Almost all urban farmers identify to some degree as an environmentalist or an advocate for sustainable living. While some recycled or repurposed materials are more practical and economical, in many cases using these materials will require extra effort.

Such actions to manifest their identity are also in line with the urban farming activity, and this can also be a subject for why people would choose to farm in the urban environment.

Pests and Weed Pests and weeds are another major concern for urban

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farmers and urban farming methods. Firstly, people living

nature and are therefore more sensitive to pests. Secondly, urban farmers often farm in the same space where they perform normal living activities, and therefore pests can cause more problems than affecting the growth of crops.

Weed, while not as intrusive and don’t cause the same level of disruption, eats into the valuable space available for food crops.

This could again explain why controlled environment farming techniques and soilless farming techniques

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

in the city are less exposed to various insects found in

such as hydroponic are particularly popular among urban farmers. With controlled environment farming, it is much easier to create a more sterile environment and avoid contamination with pests and weeds. Soilless farming methods also significantly reduced the possibility for pests and weeds, as it provides little chance for contamination.

already contain pests and weeds.

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harvested from nearby regions or onsite the property, may

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The soil in itself, either it be store-bought potting mixes or

Time, Resources, and Automation: Another primary concern is time and resources, as most urban farmers see their farming activities not as a profession but a hobby. However, this is a more complicated issue as we see some urban farmers profit from their products and that some people are willing to spend more time on their hobbies than others. However, for general discussion, the time and resources that go into initiating and maintaining any urban farming method are a major area of concern.

Again, this could explain why many people focus on making the most efficient and automated systems possible for their circumstances. Automation and efficiency eventually translated to less time and resources devoted to this activity. The majority of the methods documented in this catalog have some degree of automation. For example, self-watering systems automate the watering process, which is otherwise a daily task that one must perform.

Hydroponic systems are semi-automated in nature, as well as aquaponic systems, which is a natural way of 109

automating the farming process using the symbiotic

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relationship between fish and plants. We also see more complex automation systems that can constantly maintain optimal growing conditions for the plant.

An interesting phenomenon is that there are many internal conflicts when it comes to developing an efficient and automated system. For many people, the complexity of the initial setup and maintenance of the automation systems compared to how much they are growing may actually results in spending more time and resources within a reasonable period. This could only be explained by the strong interest in experimentation. However, there are still efficient methods of reducing the time and resources spent on urban farming, and that these systems can also result in more stable conditions for the plant, which will increase productivity.

Chindogu: An interesting concept that I want to use to describe many of these systems is the concept of “Chindogu”. This term originated in Japan and was coined by Kenji Kawakami, a former editor and contributor to the Japanese homeshopping magazine "Mail Order Life." Chindogu describes clever inventions that seem to be the ideal solution to particular everyday problems but are in many respects impractical or can cause more problems than they solve.

I find a similar spirit in many gadgets and systems invented for decentralized urban farming. Many of these designs or methods address very specific problems, but many of them often lost track of the overall purpose of producing food through the process. Nonetheless, they are very interesting to study and replicate, and many people find these systems as genius inventions despite the other problems. I think this results from a community-driven design process, where people often focus more on their personal interests than efficiency or productivity.

In fact, this spirit of making specific things is a common trend in the more prominent online maker community and open-sourced revolution and could be the character of a more democratized design and manufacturing approach.

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5.2 Case Study:

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The Epic Garden, Overview

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5.2.1 Epic Gardening The Epic Garden: Owner: Kevin Espiritu Location: San Diego, California, United Stated of America Size: around 40sqm Soil Medium, using raised beds and containers Capacity: around 100 plants

Fig. 10 Kevin Espiritu in his garden.

Taken as screen shot from his

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Case Study 1:

Youtube video:

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Kevin Espiritu Online Influencer, Author and Entrepreneur Kevin Espiritu is an online influencer, author, and entrepreneur based in San Diego, United States. He is the founder of Epic Gardening.com, an online education

Website: https://www.epicgardening.com/ YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSbyncU597LMwb3HhnAI_4w

platform, and author of the 2019 book Field Guide to Urban Gardening: How to Grow Plants, No Matter There You Live. His YouTube channel has over 1 million subscribers and more than 300 videos educating people about gardening and growing edibles in the urban environment.

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His Garden: For most of his online presence, his garden has been a 15-by-30-foot front yard in San Diego. The yard is populated by raised beds, in-ground beds, pots, vertical systems, and self-watering containers. Since 2021, he has moved to a new property, where a lot more space is available, and he started experimenting with more aspects of gardening.

How he Started: Kevin Espiritu finished his degree in economics and accounting in the Summer of 2010 and did not quite enjoy life as an accountant. He then retreated to web development and began gardening as a hobby with his family.

Unlike many other gardeners or hobbyists, he did not grow up gardening and first entered gardening through hydroponics, a form of controlled environment farming, where nutrient-rich solution is used to grow plants without using soil. He documented his experience with hydroponic in his blog, which grew into the online education platform that he now operates.

His Drive for Gardening: In a 2021 interview with gardeners.com, Kevin shared that he enjoys the experimental aspect of gardening, expanding his craft and deepening his practice in different aspects of gardening. He also shares that he finds satisfaction in controlling and changing a plant’s growth and enjoys the process of growing food.

In another instance, he pointed out that he finds personal enjoyment out of doing something with the earth and eating what he grows. He also mentions that he believes that the food you grow yourself is probably the healthiest that you can eat and that this process can help people reconnect with the way we evolve as humans. "The more I garden, the deeper it gets for me, and it connects to everything else," says Kevin

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

compost bin

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in ground bed with self watering

various container pots

self watering raised beds

various container pots

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The Epic Garden, Elements

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Specialty: Kevin Espiritu specializes in small-space, edible gardens.

As his book title suggests, his focus is edible urban gardening. He often uses raised beds, vertical gardening systems, and containers to grow food in small urban gardens and indoors. He is also a big advocate for permaculture and uses various water and energy conservation methods and strategies. He grows most of his crops organically and experiments with many different varieties of crops.

Kevin also focuses on gardening management, where he shares methods and management strategies to grow a variety of crops all year round in a small urban garden. For a while, he also grew microgreens commercially and sold them to local restaurants.

Epic Gardening 2019 Apocalypse Grow challenge One notable project that he did was the “Epic Gardening 2019 Apocalypse Grow challenge” in June 2019. This challenge was conducted at the height of the pandemic, Epic Gardening 2019 Apocalypse Grow Challenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxfHwh7FRKU&t=1352s

and its purpose was to see if it was possible for one to live off the land in the urban environment. For 30 days, he only ate what he grew, fish, barter, and foraged from his garden and his local community. The challenge also included a 90-day planning and preparation phase, where he started growing selected crops to prepare for his 30day challenge. He successfully completed the challenge and provided valuable information and insights for growing food in the urban environment.

The rules and regulations of the challenge: During the 30-day challenge, he was only allowed to eat what was grown, fished, foraged, or preserved.

While the challenge period runs from June 1st – to June 30th, he gave himself a 90-day preparation period where he is allowed to start growing crops and store or preserve foods that he has grown, fished, or foraged. For example, he grew and stored many potatoes and made small amounts of pickled vegetables, dried fruit, and some

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spices.

ket value of what other people have produced themselves.

He was allowed to use and consume city tap water, a small bottle of olive oil, and salt. These are things that he cannot produce easily and do not have too much influence on the challenge.

Calorie and Nutrition In preparation for his challenge, Kevin Espiritu took on

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

In addition, he was allowed to barter locally at a fair mar-

two important concepts for his diet, calories and nutrition. Kevin Espiritu estimated that he needs to consume at least 2,000 calories a day to sustain himself based on his weight and height. This results in him having to produce 60,000 calories for the 30 days of the challenge.

In terms of nutrition, his focus was on having all three

dressing other nutrient requirements.

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having as much variety as possible to do his best at ad-

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macronutrients, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, while

He plans to grow two food categories, calorie-dense foods and nutrient dese foods, in his garden. Crops like potatoes, beans, and peas are grown for their high-calorie density, and leafy greens such as spinach and kale are grown for their nutrition.

In addition, he relies on foraging for a variety of fresh fruits and berries and fishing for some animal proteins and fats that he will not be able to grow in his garden. His plan also included bartering with the local community for eggs, oils, and more variety of foods such as preserved foods and honey, which he cannot easily produce on his own plant-only farm. What he bartered, however, are foods that other people have grown or produced in their own homes in urban or suburban San Diego.

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Body of Work

Results: He successfully completed the challenge. However, he felt it very difficult, especially in the first week and days. The overall caloric intake was suddenly dropped significantly for him, which accounted for some shock to his system.

However, he contributed most of the difficulty to the dietary changes that he needs to go through. This refers to the types of food that he needs to adjust to and abstaining from substances such as caffeine, which affects his energy level.

Fig. 11

Before and after the challenge, he conducted body

Body composition scan results

composition scans to show how his body composition

before and after the challenge.

changed through this challenge. The following figure shows the body composition history in January 2016, June 1st, 2019, and June 29th, 2019. We should compare the data from June 1st of 2019 to June 29th of 2019, which was the period when he completed the challenge.

We can see, overall, he lost around 10 pounds during this challenge. Of those 10.2 pounds, 1.4 pounds were fat, and 8.8 were lean mass. He contributed the loss of lean mass to his under intake of calories, and that the main macronutrients were carbohydrates, and he was unable to consume much protein. While this is a speculation from him and was not proven in any scientific methods, this speculation does align with the conditions of his overall challenge.

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lenge.

He also notes that he couldn’t have done it without the community and trading foods with other people. While he speculates that relying 100% on oneself is possible in some conditions in the urban environment, it was not practical for the scope of his challenge. Being a gardener focused on plants, he also did not have much access to animal protein such as eggs. He considers animal products an essential source of essential micronutrients such

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Figure: Body composition scan before and after the chal-

as fat and protein during his challenge.

Final Thoughts and Analysis: His experimental challenge demonstrated that you could indeed, for a limited period, support your food intake off

producing potatoes. Potatoes are calorie-dense, and his

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duce more in terms of calories as he had great success in

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of an urban garden. He stated that he was able to pro-

level of production will satisfy his caloric needs. However, he cannot effectively produce protein and fats in his garden and need to forage, fish or barter for those nutrients from a nutrition perspective. As a result, he had to trade calorie-dense food such as potatoes for nutrition-dense foods such as eggs to fulfill the nutrient requirements.

Another note was that calorie-dense foods often require a lot of space to grow. For example, potatoes are very land-intensive crops. While not a significant contributor to calories or macronutrients, leafy greens could be grown much easier in smaller spaces, and one can easily yield enough leafy greens to satisfy their leafy greens consumption. Kevin Espiritu yielded a steady supply of fresh spinach and kale from a single 4-foot by 8-foot self-watering grow bed during his challenge.

While this challenge was not conducted scientifically, it is an interesting attempt to produce food in the urban environment that provided valuable knowledge and experience.

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Rob’s Aquaponics & Backyard Farm, Overview

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5.2.2 Rob’s Aquaponics & Backyard Farm Rob’s Backyard Aquaponic System Owner: Rob Bob Location: Ipswich, South East Queensland, Australia Size: around 20 sqm Aquaponic system using clay pebble Capacity: around 30 fish and 60 plants

Fig. 12 Rob Bob in front of his backyard aquaponic system. Acquired form YouTube video thumbnail. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=1q_MN4kZRlY&t=61s

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Case Study 2:

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Rob Bob Online influencer, entrepreneur

Website: https://www.bitsouttheback.com/

Rob Bob is an online influencer based in Ipswich, South

Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/Bitsoutthe-

East Queensland, Australia. His channel have more than

back/?ref=page_internal

300,000 subscribers, and shares knowledge and tech-

https://www.youtube.com/c/RobBob/

niques about urban farming using aquaponics and soil

Youtube Channel: featured

beds.

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His Garden For the purpose of this research, I will only focus on his backyard aquaponic system.

Bob Rob runs a 3000L/790 Gallen aquaponic system in his backyard in an urban block in Ipswich, Southeast Queensland, Australia. His aquaponic system started as an “IBC Chop and Flip system,” where a single IBC tank is being cut into two different sized pieces, one used as grow beds, and the other used as a fish tank and water reservoir. Over the years, he has modified the system to expand its volume and add additional grow beds, specialty filters, and a bigger fish tank. The state of his aquaponic system used for this research was based on his most recent system documentation, posted onto his YouTube channel on July 4th, 2021.

More on His Story:

His Story:

https://www.bitsouttheback. com/aquaponics

Rob Bod initially took an interest in hydroponics and experimented with producing some food through his hydroponic systems. He was then inspired by a story posted on an online forum of an individual fishing in his own back-year aquaponic system. That individual had two sizable cut-down rainwater tanks filled with fish and many grow beds filled with lush greens that are connected to the fish tanks. Rob Bob was inspired by that image and began his aquaponic adventures. Today, his channel Rob’s Aquaponics & Backyard Farm has grown into one of the biggest channels focused on aquaponic and decentralized urban farming.

DIY Experimental Aquaponic Systems His urban farming method has two major characteristics, DIY using repurposed and recycled materials and an experimental approach to continuously develop his aquaponic system.

The most apparent aspect of his backyard aquaponics system is that he uses almost exclusively recycled and repurposed materials, and that his aquaponic system

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was built by himself. In his aquaponic system, we see

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return pipe

grow bed

bell siphon

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storage

sump

radio flow settler solids filter fish tank drain valve

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chopped-up IBC tanks, oil drums, rainwater tanks, and many more components that are not intended to be used as farming equipment. He also shares how he modified these components or used them as raw materials to make his aquaponics systems in his videos. This contrasts our previous case study subject, Kevin Espiritu and Epic Gardening, where he uses many commercially available growing systems.

While there are many commercially available aquaponic systems on the market, he still chose to make them out of these repurposed and recycled materials. One reason could be that he wants very specific and particular components for his system. Commercially available systems are designed as widely applicable and unified systems that might not suit his needs perfectly. Another reason might be cost-saving. As he mentioned in many videos, many components that he shares with people have very little cost compared to buying a commercially available system of the same capacity and function.

However, I suspect that there is another reason for his efforts to make everything by himself. He simply enjoys the do-it-yourself process and finds fulfillment in creating an effective working prototype out of recycled and repurposed material. The fact that he can tailor his creations to suit his unique needs and be cost-effective simultaneously validated his interest and is welcomed aspects that resulted from his DIY efforts.

The other major characteristic of Rob’s backyard aquaponics system is that it is constantly evolving and that Rob is constantly experimenting with new things in his system. He is perfectly capable of creating a stable and low-maintenance system that can run smoothly. He has documented creating these systems for local farms, but he is constantly experimenting with new filters, watering schedules, and plumbing variations in his own system and videos. This goes hand in hand with the DIY aspect of his methods, as the fact that he made the system by himself enabled him to have the capacity and ability to experiment and modify the system at ease.

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Hanna Joe’s Balcony Aquaponic Farm, Overview

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5.2.3 Hanna Joe’s Balcony Aquaponic Farm Hanna Joe’s Balcony Aquaponic Farm Owner: Hanna Joe Location: Orchard Road Singapore

Fig. 13

Size: around 15 sqm

Hanna Joe in her balcony aqua-

NFT (nutrient film technique) aquaponic system

ponic farm https://www.straitstimes.com/

Capacity: around 10 fish and 100 small plants

singapore/environment/teengrows-high-tech-veggie-farmin-balcony

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Case Study 3:

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Hanna Joe

Also see article: " Teen grows high-tech veggie farm in balcony of Orchard Road home" by Shabana

Hanna Joe is a student at the Singapore American

Begum

School. As an advocate for sustainable living and urban

environment/teen-grows-high-tech-veggie-

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/

farming, she has been donating hydroponic kits to chil-

farm-in-balcony

dren's homes and teaching her peers about sustainable

Teen grows sustainable hydroponic farm

urban farming.

And video Report: at home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57HBTpEn7KQ

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Her Balcony Farm: Hanna Joe’s aquaponic system is situated in her family’s high-rise condominium balcony in Orchard Road. The balcony is long and slender, measuring about 1.2 meters by 5 meters. She uses two NFT hydroponic systems connecting to a 120-liter fish tank as an aquaponic system. The fish produces nutrients for the plant, and the plant cleans the water for the fish. She has a total of 11 tilapia fish in her system and produces various herbs and leafy green vegetables such as basil, arugula, lettuce, bok choy, curly kale and kai lan . All her produce goes to her family’s dinner table, and she claims that her balcony farm can supply almost all the leafy greens and herbs her family of four needs.

Her system cost her less than $300 USD to set up, and she spends about 30 minutes a day maintaining the system and harvesting the vegetables. Her family utility bill increased by around $10 USD each month. Note that her system is naturally lit. Lighting is usually the major consumer of electricity in these systems.

She likes the texture, flavor, and freshness of the vegetables that she had grown herself, saying that the vegetables are sweeter, more tender, and less bitter than the store-bought ones.

NFT Aquaponic Similar to Rob Bob, Hanna Joe uses aquaponics to approach urban farming. As we can see, however, her setup is drastically different from that of Rob Bob’s. Her particular method is called the nutrient film technique or NFT, where a very shallow stream of water containing the dissolved nutrients required for plant growth is re-circulated past the bare roots of plants in a watertight gully or channels. The nutrient film technique system allows her system several advantages. First, her system can be much lighter, have a lot less water volume. Second, her system is highly expandable and stackable, meaning she can vertically stack the system to expand her growing capacity. We can see that her system has five layers of

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growing gullies, allowing her to produce a lot more in a lot

water feed pipe

over the top biological filter

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less space. Growth density is another advantage, as the growing spots are much closer to each other and can also be adjusted to suit different needs.

NFT aquaponic does come with limitations, especially in the variety of plants that can be grown. Because the growing medium is so small and the water gully is so shallow, NFT systems cannot sustain big and tall plants.

This often limits the plants to herbs and leafy greens, but certain plants such as strawberries can also be grown in these types of systems. Maintenance and reliability are other points of concern. This is a much more complex system as compared to simpler techniques such as the floating raft or flood beds. There are many connections and plumbing required, which can also affect reliability.

How she started Her interest in high-tech farming started when she was 12. She visited the 2015 World Expo in Milan, where she was fascinated by the installation of the Belgian pavilion aquaponic system. After some additional research and preparation, she started building her own system from scratch starting in 2018.

Her Drive for Gardening As a permanent resident of Singapore, Hanna Joe is concerned with Singapore’s food security and wishes to inspire more urban farming in Singapore through her actions. Singapore imports more than 90 percent of its fresh food and is heavily impacted by any food supply shocks. This was made evident by the COVID-10 global pandemic, which inspired her to continue pursuing urban farming in her future studies.

She also feels a great deal of accomplishment with her farm, as she grew plants, kept fish alive, and produced food for her family. The daily routine also gives her a sense of calmness, and she considers it a helpful activity.

In the future, she wants to experiment with growing rice in her home. "The main thing about hydroponics is being

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able to grow food in an urban setting. If so many people

foods," she said.

Hannah also donated hydroponics systems to children’s homes in 2020. Similar versions of her aquaponic system were given to the “Sunbeam Place @ Children's Society” and “Chen Su Lan Methodist Children's Home” to teach and inspire children about sustainable living and urban farming. Such social agendas have also given Hanna an immense sense of joy and accomplishment.

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

eat rice, it is only natural to experiment on growing staple

Singapore’s Push for Urban Farming: Her urban farming efforts come amid a national push from Singapore to produce more food locally. The government wishes that urban farming can help buffer the country against shocks in the global food supply. Besides

In June, the National Parks Board announced plans to in-

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is also encouraging food growing at the community level.

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efforts to scale up large-scale high-tech farms, Singapore

crease the number of community gardens and distributed free packets of leafy and fruit vegetable seeds to encourage people to grow edibles at home.

Food security expert Paul Teng said every small effort contributes to the country's food needs, and households can do their bit by growing vegetables, participating in community gardens, and reducing food waste. "As the pandemic has shown, having your own source of vegetables also means the household has some resilience to guard against any temporary shortages in the usual commercial sources," he said.

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8m2 Balcony Garden, Overview

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5.2.4 Her 86m2 8m2 Balcony Garden Owner: Thuy Dao Location: Undisclosed Town in Germany Size: 8 sqm Permaculture using DIY wood planters Capacity: 50 plants

Fig. 14 Thuy Dao in her balcony garden, taken from YouTube Video Thumbnail https://www.youtube.com/

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Case Study 4:

watch?v=hxU9gtORwWU

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Thuy Dao Thuy Dao is an online lifestyle influencer and entrepreneur. She is based in Germany and operates the website / online shop “her 86m2” and accompanying YouTube channel as her main platforms. Her channel focuses on green living, cooking, DIY, travel, and art/illustrations. She lives in an apartment block in an undisclosed German town.

The name of her channel and website comes from the area of her apartment, 76m2 living space plus 8m2 balcony, totaling 86m .

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Her Balcony Garden Her balcony measures 2 meters by 4 meters and has a total area of 8 square meters. The balcony is populated with raised beds and containers, where she grows all her produce and plants. There are a total of 6 raised beds, accompanied by a variety of different sized containers.

The raised beds are made from wood by herself. She later added trellises to her raised beds and some containers to help grow certain plants. The planning, fabrication, and arrangement of her balcony farm is described in detail in this video.

Fig. 15 Aerial shot of Thuy Dao’s 8m2 balcony garden, taken from YouTube video thumbnail: Growing a Vegetable Garden on a Small Balcony (8 sqm) https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=hxU9gtORwWU&t=55s

She grows everything in potting mixture enhanced by her own composting from food scraps. She waters all her plats manually. She grows herbs, leafy greens, and a variety of fruits, vegetables, and flowers in her garden. It is a remarkably diverse and productive garden for its space.

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Garden as Her Sanctuary She considers the domestic environment a micro-cosmos, and especially during the time of the pandemic, the home environment becomes the entire world to its See Also: Welcome to my 86m2 | Home Tour | Rental Apartment in Germany https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pil1jt03PZU

occupants. She considers her balcony/ Garden/ Edible farm the sanctuary of her home. Plants make her happy, and working in the garden helps her slow down, focus, and build patience. Caring for plants also makes her happy, and the circle of life that happens in the garden help connect her to the world of nature outside, where she also enjoys. The 8m2 balcony garden is a piece of nature, a sanctuary, and a place of happiness to her.

Food and Culture Another important aspect of her garden is related to cooking. Her garden and the plants that she grows serve as a cultural connection between her and her culture.

For example, in Vlog 34, “Making Bánh Mì - Vietnamese Baguette from scratch | My 5 Ways to Eat Banh Mi, ” she made Banh Mi using ingredients sourced from her garden. She used herbs, lettuce, as well as pickled vegetables that she made using produce from her garden. She mentioned that many of the ingredients are not available in the local supermarket where she lives and that she grows certain herbs in her garden to cook traditional Vietnamese food. In vlog 31, “Recreated Mom's Recipe for Lunar New Year and Failed! ” and vlog 9, “What I Eat in a Day | Asian Home Cooking ,” she also used produce from her garden to create staple Vietnamese foods such as pho and spring rolls.

Food and culture always have a strong tie. While it is possible in a metropolitan area like Tokyo to get authentic cultural cuisine, there are still many region-specific foods and home cooking that international restaurants cannot replicate. Even within the country, many region-specific ingredients are the staple diet of one region while impossible to find in others. In this case, many people choose to grow the ingredients that they need, both as a practical food source as well as using the growing process to connect to their cultural heritage. For example, in Los

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Angeles, many Asian communities grow chives and leek

a staple diet for many Asian cultures. However they are not always available at most grocery stores and supermarkets in Los Angeles.

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

in their back yard. These are easy-to-grow crops that are

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Micro Acers Basement Microgreens Farm, Overview

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5.2.5 Micro Acers Micro Acers Basement Microgreens Farm Owner: David and Kristin Barchard Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Size: around 70 sqm

Fig. 16 David & Kirstin Barchard in

Vertical Microgreens Farm

their urban microgreens farm in

Capacity: around 250 treys

Source:

calgary canada https://www.microacres.ca/ about-us

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

Case Study 5:

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David & Kirstin Barchard Calgary, Canada David and Kristin Barchard are founders of micro acers, a family-owned agricultural business, specializing in microgreens. They have extensive experience in the food service industry, and their mission is to provide local, healthy and fresh food for both family and businesses. They run their farm with sustainability and organic practice in

Website:

mind. They are also a major supplier for the university of

YouTube Channel:

Calgary, which is trying to incorporate more healthy food

https://www.epicgardening.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSbyncU597LMwb3HhnAI_4w

for their students. They supply a total of 9 types of microgreens to the university.

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Their Farm Their farm is located in their own suburban basement, with a total dedicated area of 400 square feet (37 square meters) for germination, harvest, and growing. They operate about 170 vertical racks. Since late 2020, they have moved to a new location, where they are able to expand their production four times. For this research, however, the documentation is made based on their basement farm.

They use compostable corn-based container treys for their operation and use off-the-shelf storage racks as their vertical system. The racks are fitted with high power led light tubes as grow lights. They also have eight ventilation fans running at all times.

They produce 250 treys of microgreens per week and make around 10,000 USD of revenue in a typical month.

They produce a variety of microgreens, including buckwheat, daikon radish, ruby stem radish, popcorn, green kale, red radish, bok choy, arugula, purple kohlrabi, tatsoi mustard, broccoli, scarlet frills mustard, fava, and red pak choi. They also offer sprouts and shoots, including pea shoots, bean sprouts, and sunflowers.

In addition, they also offer consulting services, including a course on urban farming entrepreneurship and direct hourly consulting. Their specialties are agricultural startups, labor and farm management, chef and restaurant sales, direct sales on a subscription, and retail sales in grocery stores and distribution.

They dedicate about 40 hours a week total to maintaining the farm and making deliveries to local customers.

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microgreens growing rack system

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Their Agenda: Micro acers is the only for-profit agricultural business included in this case study. While they do operate in their homes as a family, the main agenda is for profit. In addition, as they have extensive experience in the foodservice industry, they also wish to make innovations in the agriculture business, especially related to the foodservice industry.

Despite their urban setting and high-tech farming methods, they offer food to restaurants at a more affordable price than conventional suppliers. The way that they achieve this was because they are a local company and they only supply customers close by. They orchestrate their deliveries such that they are closer together and make deliveries and distribution extremely cost-effective.

Operating locally has also allowed their products to be fresher and in better conditions than traditional distribution methods. Coupled with the fact that some of their microgreens product can be delivered as a “live trey,” their products can have a shelf life of over a week, and the quality remains consistent through the shelving period.

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5.2.6 Common Agendas Grow Your Own Food The common mission and theme surrounding all the case studies is the same agenda to grow one’s own food. Although each of the five case study subjects has a different agenda for urban farming and comes from varying backgrounds worldwide, their overall mission is the same. They all see the act of growing one’s own food as an essential mission in their life and enjoy sharing the amazing discoveries they have made through this process.

Such mission can directly relate to Michael Pollan’s New York Times’ Magazine article “Why Bother?” where Pollan suggests that the act of growing one’s own food “help heal “the split between what you think and what you do,” and “to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen.”

Joy and Fulfillment All of them have explicitly expressed the joy and fulfillment they get from taking care of plants and harvesting the reward. Kevin Espiritu states that he finds personal enjoyment out of doing something with the earth and eating what he grows. He also believes that the food growing process is a great way to help people reconnect with nature and the way that we evolve as humans.

After all, humankind's most important technological development is not the industrial revolution or the computer; it is agriculture.

Rob Bob also made a special note to the concept of growing one’s own food on his website on a dedicated page. He considers the ability to grow one’s own food to be one of the most important skills that any individual can learn and that his mission as a nonlinen influencer and educator is to help people grow foods successfully and feel the satisfaction when sitting down and enjoying a meal made from homegrown harvests.

Hanna Joe also shares that she finds it extremely

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rewarding to be able to eat what she has grown. Taking

changed her relationship with food and made her more appreciative of what she eats. Taking care of plants has also become her daily ritual, where she can find a sense of calmness and joy from performing daily maintenance tasks and harvesting vegetables.

Thuy Dao also shared that cooking with the ingredients that she has produced connects her with nature and the circle of life. She describes her garden as a sanctuary because plants make her happy, and working in the garden

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

care of plants and growing her own food have also

helps her slow down, focus, and build patience.

Similarly, David & Kirstin Barchard, who farm microgreens for profit, still find the food production process to be fulfilling and full of joy.

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Another common mission for all of them is to live more

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sustainably through the act of urban farming. However, some of them employ controlled environment farming methods that can be considered the opposite of organic farming, or that in David & Kirstin Barchard’s case, who farm for profit. All of them maintain a mission for sustainable living under their own definitions and understandings. It remains debatable whether their particular farming methods is more efficient or more sustainable than the available alternatives. However, sustainability is always in their primary missions, and that they are able to explain their take on sustainability on their own terms.

Kevin Espiritu, for example, believes that the biodiversity and permaculture methods that he employs to be the major contributor to sustainability. In stark contrast, Rob Bob and Hanna Joe only plant leafy greens in their aquaponic systems. For Rob Bob, the symbiotic relationship between fish and plants is the main contributor to sustainability.

For Hanna Joe, the possibilities of producing food in an urban high rise contribute to more sustainable forms of development and living. For Thuy Dao, the sustainability aspect comes from the simple fact of connecting with 147

nature, and sustainable living to her means to be able to

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have a personal sanctuary where one can heal, relax, and connect with one’s identity. David & Kirstin Barchard view their farm as more sustainable because they are a local producer who can reduce cost and carbon footprint by reducing transportation.

Determining whether each and every one of their urban farming methods is indeed more sustainable or not is not the primary mission of this research. However, their common mission for sustainability is enough to prove that one of the common agendas for decentralized urban farming is sustainability.

5.2.7 Distinct Agendas: As mentioned before, the five case studies are selected from a much broader survey because they are representative of the different urban farming methods, conditions, and agendas. While they all share the common agendas of growing food, finding joy and fulfillment, and living more sustainably, they each have a different set of distinct agendas that represent the diversity of the urban farming community.

Below are five distinct agendas for decentralized urban farming.

Practical Food Production While this is similar to the common agenda of growing your own food, there is a distinct difference in the practicality aspect. While the obvious agenda for urban farming is growing one’s own food, there is no limit and requirement on productivity or diversity. In many cases, people grow food for fun and only occasionally enjoy some fresh harvest as a special event or treat to the work that was put in.

However, practical food production has a clear defined purpose of having a productive garden that can deliver a variety of foods all year round. This requires a lot of effort, planning, execution, and management.

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Kevin Espiritu is an excellent example of this agenda.

maintaining a productive garden that can produce fresh, healthy, and sustainable food sources all year round. While this definitely requires a bigger garden, the real challenge here is the planning and management.

This is no easy task, as it requires one to have extensive knowledge and experience in gardening. One needs to master a variety of gardening methods, as well as having the knowledge and organization skills to plan for the entire year’s growing schedule. Each plant has a specific

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

His main goal is to educate people on growing and

germinating period, growth period, and harvesting period, and this varies across geological locations due to climate.

An urban farmer with the objective to practically produce food therefore has to invest a significant portion of their time and effort into planning, managing, and executing the growing schedule.

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and benefit from their gardens. Under good planning,

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However, this also gives the urban farmer more fulfillment management, and execution, one can enjoy a variety of fresh produce from their own garden all year round.

DIY and Experimentation The second distinct agenda to urban farming is to DIY and experiment with different urban farming methods. Under this agenda, growing food is the secondary goal and is more like a sign of success than the overarching purpose.

Growing food or urban farming becomes a theme where the primary purpose of DIY and experimentation can attach to.

It is hard to explain this agenda under the context of urban farming, as producing food should be the primary and obvious goal for it. However, the concept can be much easily understood under the context of the maker movement. It is almost impossible to justify some of what the online opensource and maker community is making. They seem to be completely useless things with little to no value to the real world and their creators. The only way to explain the maker community is the drive for innovation and experimentation, even without a clearly

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defined purpose in many cases. Such agenda is carried

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over to urban farming, and many people who practice urban farming also self-identify as makers. Urban farming simply becomes a topic or theme for innovation and experimentation.

Urban farming is also a perfect topic for this to happen, as the results are easily visualized through plant growth. The limitations of the urban environment and the unique needs for different plants also proposed many opportunities for invention and areas of interest.

Rob Bod is a great example of this agenda. He initially started experimenting with hydroponics and quickly switched to aquaponics because the introduction of fish into the system posed many interesting opportunities for innovation and exploration. In his videos, he is constantly experimenting with new water filters, new siphon design, and his own backyard aquaponic system is in a constant state of modifications. He also pays little attention to the types of crops that he grows or dedicates significant time or attention to the crops. To him, the food produced is a byproduct of his experiments, a sign of success for his innovative adventures. This is in stark contrast to Kevin Espiritu, who continues to use the same efficient system that he is familiar with and dedicates a significant portion of his effort into maximizing plant growth and planning to achieve a reliable and sustained harvest.

Urban Resilience Urban resilience is another distinct agenda. This particular concern is more relevant for megacities such as Singapore, which relies more than 90 percent of its fresh food on imports. The topic of urban resilience is becoming a more pressing concern due to the supply chain shocks resulting from the COVID-19 global pandemic. While we are still within the aftershock of various supply chain disruptions, the most concerning one that got everyone’s attention is the shock to our food supply.

In any modern urbanized society, having access to plentiful food is almost taken for granted. The only concern is affording food, not the availability of food. However,

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at least for a brief moment during the initial phases of

transportation has led to empty grocery store shelves for many of us who have been living our whole lives inside of modernized urbanisms and is definitely a first and a massive shock to the system.

Therefore, it is not surprising that such supply chain disruptions have led many into experimenting with growing their own foods at home. This serves both as a safety measure for themselves and becomes a major aspect of urban resilience if practiced on an urban scale.

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the pandemic, panic buying coupled with disruption in

Hanna Joe and Singapore is a great example of this agenda. Singapore has been pushing for producing food more locally, and Hanna Joe stated in the 2020 interview that although she started her experiments before the appearance of the pandemic, the pandemic has inspired ADS

explorations into the future as her area of study.

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her to expand her aquaponic system and continue her

The agenda for urban resilience can also extend beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, as many other forms of market and supply chain disruptions can result from natural or artificial disasters. Food security expert Paul Teng said, "As the pandemic has shown, having your own source of vegetables also means the household has some resilience to guard against any temporary shortages in the usual commercial sources."

Lifestyle and Identity On a more personal aspect, urban farming could also be a lifestyle or connect one with their identity. This agenda is prevalent among young adults who grew up in the fastpaced information age and saw gardening as a lifestyle activity to help them disconnect from their devices and appreciate more aspects of life and nature.

Identity is another essential aspect of this agenda, and it can mean a multitude of things. For example, urban farming can reinforce one’s identity as an advocate for sustainable living or a nature lover. From another perspective, farming can help one connect to one’s cultural 151

identity through food and ingredients.

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Thuy Dao is a great example of both. She advocated herself as one who embraces mindful living, one who loves to connect with nature, and uses food as a means to connect herself to her Vietnamese heritage. She describes her balcony garden as the sanctuary of her home and finds joy and mindfulness in its presence. She also enjoys using the ingredients harvested from her garden to cook.

In many instances, she cooks Vietnamese food from her mother’s recipe. In this case, her edible garden allows her to connect her to her cultural identity, and she is able to pass down the same experience that she had when she was little to her child.

This is not an isolated or unique case either. Many immigrant families and communities will plant trees representative of their cultural heritage in their established communities, and certain vegetables or herbs in their yards.

One can argue that this is more of a practical concern, as they are unable to get certain vegetables and mush produce for themselves. However, I feel that this has a lot more to do with cultural identity and the actual pieces of hard-to-find vegetables.

Farming for Profit This is by far the most straightforward agenda that we have discussed. While many think that it is impossible to farm for profit in an urban farming setting, David & Kirstin Barchard have proved the viability of their business “Micro Acers.” While the couple runs their business as a side business along with their regular jobs, they have slowly shifted their focus more towards their farm and have reduced hours on their day job. Many other microgreens and herb farmers are also able to make a reasonable profit by growing selected crops in their urban homes, which further proves that a decentralized form of food production, at least in some areas and crop varieties, can be economically sustainable and feasible.

This different agenda also prompts a different set of goals

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for the farmer, with efficiency being the main driving force.

main concern for urban farmers with a different agenda.

Maybe they value efficiency to a degree, but their urban farming activity is at least not dictated by efficiency or economy of scale.

It is interesting to see, however, that although decentralized urban farming should be the direct opposite to industrialized farming and monoculture, the economy of scale and specialization still are at the heart of any economically sustainable and viable operations.

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As we have discussed earlier, efficiency is often not the

On the other hand, they still differ greatly from industrialized farming in many ways, and most of them still strongly withhold a sustainable mission for their operations. However, it is interesting to observe in the long run, as these decentralized urban farms continue to pop up

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and develop, whether they can withhold the same standard

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6.0 Conclusions

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Conclusion

Conclusions

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6.1 Research Findings The objective of this research was to study the phenomenon of decentralized urban farming and find answers to the two simple questions. How are people growing food in the urban environment? And why are people growing food in the urban environment?

How? The first question of how people are growing food in the urban domestic environment comes from the fact that the modern urban living space did not account for growing food as a regular function. There is simply no dedicated space for growing food, unliking cooking, or bathroom.

Therefore, some interventions must be made to make growing food possible in the urban domestic environment, and I am personally very interested in these inventions.

This topic was explored during my surveying process, and my findings are presented in the resulting catalog of urban farming methods. In the catalog, we see a variety of techniques and systems, some developed specifically for urban farming, while some are refitted or modified to suit the specific conditions and challenges of urban farming.

Among these methods, there are many common themes.

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space efficiency, pest and weed control, and time and resource-saving. These are as expected as it addresses many concerns for farming in the urban environment.

Space efficiency is the most significant theme among all, as limited available space is the biggest challenge of urban farming. It is fascinating to see how issues surrounding space efficiency are resolved through various methods.

Controlled environment farming, vertical stacking, and using small containers are among the most effective and

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The more expected themes for these methods include

prevalent space-saving methods. These are not without costs, though, as controlled environment farming and vertical stacking drastically complicate the farming systems, and smaller containers limits plant growth and the variety of plants that can be grown. Nonetheless, I was delighted to find that, through a lot of these methods, the ADS

farming.

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issue of limited space did not limit the possibilities of urban

Pest and weed control is another central theme throughout and addresses one of the biggest concerns for anyone interested in growing plants in their homes. Pests and weeds are unpleasant, but they can significantly impact plant health, productivity, and food safety under food production. Especially for people growing their own food, they tend to want to refrain from using pesticides and herbicides, as the absence of these chemicals is one of the biggest benefits of growing one’s own food.

With the unique characteristics of many of the urban farming methods, pest and weed control can be achieved without using any chemical pesticides or herbicides.

Methods such as controlled environment farming and soilless farming create a sterile environment that greatly reduces the risk of pest and weed infestation and sometimes eliminates these problems.

Time and resource savings, while it is hard to quantify, seems to be at least a point of concern for a lot of these systems. Many of these systems being documented in the catalog are automated or semi-automated systems, which can in theory, save a lot of effort and time in maintenance.

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These automated systems also come with the promise

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of using technology to reduce the use of resources such as water. The theory is that these systems can adapt themselves to the plant's specific needs and deliver these resources in a more targeted and controlled manner, thus reducing the resources needed. However, the exact effects of this are hard to quantify and make a scientific comparison. Nevertheless, the common goal for creating a more sustainable, easier to manage, and less resourceintensive form of farming is definitely charitable.

There are also less expected themes around these methods that I have discovered, namely, how complex many of these systems are and whether they are efficient at producing food with such redundancy and complexity.

There is almost an obsession with developing the system to be the most complicated, the most feature-packed, and achieve the highest levels of automation. Many individuals focus on novelty, statistics, and function while lacking interest or attention in productivity and efficiency.

This made for interesting research materials, as one of the research objectives was to see what are the interesting innovations that happened as a result of people trying to grow food in the urban domestic environment. However, this is a concerning trend for the overall development and popularity of decentralized urban farming.

Many people would classify these systems and innovations as gimmicky and cannot produce a significant amount of food crops to be considered a device for farming. Many of them also inflate the productivity of these systems, which could result in a mismatch between a newcomer’s expectation vs. reality, and eventually resulting in frustration and quitting their adventure in urban farming. A good example of this is the Windowfarms project initiated

by Britta Riley. What was an inspiring and promising future for urban agriculture resulted in an undelivered product and bad reputations.

However, on the bright side, a similar case to the urban farming movement, the maker movement is also characterized by similar obsessions and shortcomings.

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Nonetheless, the maker movement has continued to

and products that reinforce the growth of the movement.

I hope that the urban farming movement can continue to grow and make more and more significant contributions to society, just like the maker movement did.

Why? As the research have demonstrated, urban farming can take a lot of effort and result in not so much food. Modern urbanisms also made food very affordable and accessible.

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expand, grow, and resulted in many successful businesses

So, the question of why people choose to farm for their own foods is important to answer. Through the case study conducted on 5 different individuals and their farms, I discovered that there are common agendas as well as distinct agendas for each individual to decide to take on the challenge.

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has fundamentally changed their relationship with food

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For all of my case study subjects, growing their own food and their identity as consumers, producers, and citizens.

Through their experience, they are able to have a different perspective on the widely available and accessible commodity that food has become and reestablish their relationship with what they eat. Kevin Espiritu mentioned that growing his own food has helped him connect with what it means to be human. He attributes the development of our society to agriculture, which is the biggest technological breakthrough that was the corner stone of many other more recent technological breakthroughs developments. He realized that having a reliable and plentiful food source is what made civilization possible and the importance for people to be able to recognize and connect with that.

All of the case study subjects also pointed out that growing food gives them a lot of joy and fulfillment. They can come from simply performing the daily maintenance ritual, being present with greenery, or enjoy the harvest as a delicious meal.

Sustainability is another common theme throughout all of the case study subjects. Although they all have different

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understandings of sustainability, they all see their urban

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farming activity as a demonstration of their sustainable lifestyle and they all farm sustainably under their own standards and ideas.

Aside from these common agendas, there are also distinct agendas unique to each case study subject. These five distinct agendas are also representative of other individuals that are outside the scope of the case study.

I believe that any one or combinations of these distinct agendas and the common agendas can cover the vast majority of the urban farming community.

While the five case study subjects were selected to represent each distinct agenda, there is also overlap between their purposes and goals.

These five distinct agendas are as follows: Urban farming for practical consumption Urban farming as a theme for DIY and experimentation Urban Farming as an aspect of Urban Resilience Urban farming as a lifestyle and part of one’s identity Urban farming for profit One very common urban farming goal that I did not list out as a distinct agenda might be growing marijuana plants for medicinal purposes. This was left out intentionally as it is against the law, and that this goal can be fitted into the current system using a combination method combining practical production, lifestyle identity, and for profit.

Another interesting discovery is that the method for urban farming and the agendas for urban farming is often connected. For example, Kevin Espiritu primarily uses raised beds and containers to grow food in soil. This is a very reliable and efficient method as he can easily transfer and rotate the crops between the containers and raised beds. In stark contrast, Rob Bob’s method uses a DIY experimental aquaponic system that is not as efficient and can be unreliable at producing food.

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Conclusion

6.2 Future Insights Consumer, Producer, and Citizen While growing some vegetables might seem like an insignificant activity. Given the current urban systems, there is no real need to do so. Calculating for cost, growing one’s own food might also be more expensive and result in inferior produce under certain standards.

The environmental impact of industrialized farming vs. decentralized urban farming is also a debatable topic, as there is no guarantee that decentralized farming is indeed better for the environment, or indeed, how are we able to measure it at all?

The vast majority of urban farmers also don’t completely or at all rely their source of food on their garden. They might enjoy the occasional harvest, but few go into the length and effort to schedule and prepare their gardens as if their livelihood depends on it. Many of these people are also food and food culture lovers who hold no reservations to go out to a restaurant or enjoy a grocery shopping trip Is decentralized urban farming then, a hypocrisy? With all the criticisms of industrial farming and moral high ground that many urban farmers/ gardening hobbyists hold, is this all for nothing?

As we have discovered in this research, there are many more reasons to grow food than practically feeding oneself.

I would conclude that while producing food is the most apparent reason for urban farming, practical consumption is probably the least significant drive for most of our study subjects. Growing food has much more to do with the sense of achievement, mental health, and identity.

Being an urban farmer and identify oneself as an environmentalist is almost inseparable from each other.

One can question the effects individual actions have on global climate change, and the conclusion will be very easy: individual action makes little difference. One can then make the argument that differences will be made if every single one of us is adopting an energy-saving

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lifestyle. However, the feasibility of that and the fact that

consume much to begin with will quickly render that argument irrelevant too.

But the fundamental issue under decentralized urban farming is that the people who do it are doing something and taking on responsibility, even though they don’t have to and that their actions make little difference. This is a change in role for anyone practicing urban farming. They are shifting their role as consumers who have no control over these issues and become producers who use their

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many people in developing or third world countries don’t

action to approach food production differently.

It is easy to be an environmentalist by complaining about the broken systems or even go onto parades or lobby other people about these issues. While I respect their intentions,

comments online, and expend energy on screaming while

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People often drive to events, use electricity to make hate

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these actions bear far less virtue than even staying inside.

their energy can be used for other productive activities.

Urban farming, however, is a real activity that aliens one’s belief to one’s actions and splits the difference between what they think and what they do.

Urban Degrowth Extending the topic of consumerism, Samuel Alexander and Brendan Gleeson, in their 2019 book, “Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary,” addressed the critical dilemma of sustainable urban/suburban development in the face of global climate change.

Their book proposed the radical theory of urban degrowth, where people would forgo excess material consumption in trade of time and freedom and that everyone would practice a self-sufficient lifestyle.

Alexander himself is also a living embodiment of his ideas.

He and his wife have transformed their stereotypical threebedroom house in Melbourne, Australia, into a productive and mostly self-sufficient urban farm fitted with solar 163

panels, rainwater collection, and an abundant food garden.

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Alexander points out that in the context of producing one’s own food, the concept of resilience and sustainability overlaps.

Their theory on urban degrowth is very radical, as it seems to be against common values and the core concept of basic economics. However, their main argument was on the definition of value in the post-modern society.

While materialistic consumption is an easy and apparent way to calculate value, many developed countries have reached a point of economic development where there are diminishing returns to more materialistic spending. Society has largely solidified, and people are generally living their lives in abundance.

One can argue that this is not a sustainable state, as we are running out of cheap energy and faced with the effects of climate change. While this is a valid point, such arguments have been unsuccessful in inciting significant action from our global population. In order to combat climate chage, there needs to be a more immediate paradigm shift that can result in immediate actions with tangible results.

Such paradigm shift is the core argument of the urban degrowth theory. By shifting the value from materialistic consumption to time and freedom, one can feel the immediate benefits of living more sustainably. As a result, people will try to live more sustainably because of these benefits.

Food is a great example. The value surrounding food products has gone through drastic changes in the postindustrialized era. The finest, purest, and most nutrientdense foods are now considered unhealthy, and plantbased products and whole grains are considered superior for their health benefits. Even within fresh produce, bigger, more visually pleasing fruits and vegetables are no longer more desirable than the sometimes defective organic produce, and meat products, in general, are less expensive than plant-based alternatives. It will be outrageous just a couple of generations ago that a bag of soy products is more expensive than the equivalent amount of actual beef,

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and yet, this is becoming the norm now as we have shifted

The concept of urban degrowth highlights these types of changes and applies them across all aspects of society.

Instead of a high nutrient cheeseburger, one should appreciate more a plate salad made with organic produce, and instead of a fancy handbag or sports car, one should appreciate more personal time and freedom from work obligations.

This theory is very revalent in highly developed nations

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our value towards foods.

such as Japan. Many people feel that they are overworked and that their extra effort in working yields diminishing returns as the standard of living bears little difference.

People are largely able to eat what they want, have decent living conditions, and have sufficient healthcare. Even in China, where the country has not yet reached the level

for excessive work are diminishing. Due to the excessive

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revalent; we are already seeing how materialistic returns

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of development, one would suspect this theory to be

work hours, stressful work environment, and no hope in drastically improving their standard of living, young people are starting to realize how they are already hitting the critical point on the curve of diminishing return.

Many also argue that humanity at large is also facing the same issue of diminishing returns. Many believe that technological development has reached a critical point, where all the “low hanging fruits” are gone, and that radical scientific breakthrough is needed for any significant new development.

Such realizations will eventually shift social value and render the excessively materialistic consumer culture obsolete.

Decentralized forms of development.

Since the industrial revolution, decentralized development models have largely been regarded as archaic and inefficient, given the simple rule of the economy of scale.

However, as we approach the critical point of diminishing returns, our social values could shift from materialistic 165

consumption to freedom and resilience. Coupled with the

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extreme and unexpected challenges of climate change and a global internet infrastructure already in place, now might be when the move towards decentralized forms of development becomes logical.

Decentralized food production is only one part of a bigger trend towards decentralized forms of urban development.

Many other areas, such as information/data and power, have also shown signs for a more decentralized form of development. Personal network-attached data storage and servers, solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries for individual households, and decentralized urban farming is a global phenomenon moving away from the ideologies of the industrial revolution.

The concept for centralization, specialization and the economy of scale has shown its vulnerability and danger. The amount of power and information that certain corporations are now controlling puts each of us in a dangerous position, resulting in individuals being completely hopeless in the face of any natural or artificial disruption.

The pandemic has revealed to us just how fragile many of our current systems are. Many individuals and communities have already decided to develop more decentralized strategies for resilience and security. Such a shift in development strategies will also drastically change how our cities are built and operated and may propose interesting opportunities for alternative modes of urban development.

The New Functions of Home The home environment will be the first to reflect the changes in development strategies, and we already see many interesting developments due to the effects of the pandemic. The function of the home has undergone drastic changes since the industrial revolution and have continued to change and evolve as technology develops and the meaning and functions of the domestic environment evolve. Most recently, a home office or a place to conduct remote working has become the new

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home requirements for many people. Such spaces weren't

and many people who have limited space have already sacrificed their entertainment areas or other home functions to accommodate.

Such changes might be the effects of the information revolution on our domestic environment, as technology was the enabling factor for working remotely. There have also been signs of such practice well before the pandemic, which further suggests that this is an inevitable development trajectory.

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as necessary or even needed at all before the pandemic,

However, it was almost affirmative that most people expected something similar to a TV or fridge that can provide new forms of entertainment or additional convenience. A VR game room was thought to be the most promising candidate for change, however, many are left

issues and challenges to arise. It is fascinating then, to

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stop at remote working either, as there will be many more

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with a tiny “work form home set” instead. Changes will not

investigate and observe how these conditions will change the design and people’s expectations of their domestic environment.

Going back to the title of this thesis, decentralized farming in the domestic environment could be a logical yet unexpected candidate.

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Appendix

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8.0 Appendix

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Appendix

8.1 Therapeutic Urban Aquaponics: Goldfish Architecture How keeping plants and pets in every household can help fight the mental health pandemic

Image 1: Photos from the aquaponics experiments conducted at the University of Tokyo,

Introduction:

Obuchi Laboratory

The COVID-19 global pandemic has challenged cities in new ways and shed light on more aspects of urban resilience. Mental health issues affected much more people than the covid disease itself. With each person playing a crucial role in preventative measures and economic recovery, effectively managing the mental fitness of the population has demonstrated itself to be a crucial element in the city's resilience and ability to overcome ever-increasing challenges.

In search of a solution that is sustainable, widely applicable, and effective, Obuchi Laboratory at the University of Tokyo has developed Goldfish Architecture: a small-scale aquaponics system that harnesses the therapeutic effects of plants and aqueous pets. We found that raising plants and pets has immense effectiveness as a natural, sustainable, and widely applicable way of maintaining mental fitness. The plants, microbiomes, and the water body also provide filtration and buffering effects to indoor air quality. They have been proven to have positive effects in removing VOCs , CO2 levels, and stabilizing humidity. Inciting more and more people to actively participate and understand the natural processes 174

also has the added benefits of inspiring more people to

have the potential to become a new form of sustainable urban household appliance and will be incorporated into every household like microwaves and refrigerators.

Covid 19 and Mental Health The COVID-19 global pandemic posed in quantity, more mental health problems than physical health problems to the world. The amount of reported mental health disorders have surged during the pandemic. According to CDC , as of

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care about sustainability. We believe that such systems

Dec 2020, 42% of all U.S. adults reported struggling with mental health or substance use, and scientists state that this is likely the situation in the rest of the world. Anxiety disorder or depressive disorder was “approximately three times those reported in the second quarter of 2019 (25.5% versus 8.1%), and … four times that reported in the second quarter of 2019 (24.3% versus 6.5%)”.3

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These are alarming numbers, and while the world is on its

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edge to fight covid, we should not ignore that a Parallel “mental health pandemic” is also happening.4 What is more alarming, is that the mental disorders caused by the pandemic did not recover as the situation with covid improves. According to CDC, in 2021, although new cases and deaths dropped, the number of mental disorders is steadily increasing. The mental health impact of the pandemic is likely to last much longer than the physical health impact”. For people whose jobs and loved ones were lost, life won’t ever get back to normal.

OCD , phycological stress, and depression trigged by the pandemic will also have long-term effects. On top of that, the challenge to rebuild networks after chronic loneliness will also cause a new wave of mental issues. 5 A study conducted by UCL COVID-19 Social Study also shows that the state of mental fitness of the population has significant impacts on the compliance of regulations and making a collective effort to fight back at covid. This includes attitudes towards vaccination and compliance with infection prevention measures. This goes to prove that the overall mental fitness of inhabitants is an important 175

aspect of a resilient city.

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The one thing that the covid 19 pandemic has taught us, is that building a resilient city is much more than preventing natural disasters and building walls to keep the rising sea level. The unique situations posed by the pandemic have challenged every aspect of the urban environment.

Knowing that challenges such as unpredictable effects of climate change will come, having a proper mass infrastructure for overall mental fitness is therefore extremely important in the coming decades.

The Science of (un)Happiness The science of happiness normally encompasses the following things: getting out, getting light, socialize and exercise. The challenging circumstances posed by the pandemic, the advice to stay indoors, stay alone, and not gather, really works against the science of happiness.

However, this trend will only continue post-pandemic as communications technologies develop and society becomes attuned to remote collaboration.

This means that people will spend more time by themselves, and the residential space will take on more roles as we move forward. The immediate architectural and urban surroundings then become crucially important, Image 2: World Health Organization, W. (2020). Avoid the Three Cs

as it has even more effect on its inhabitants and needs to provide that immediate access to sunlight, social opportunities, and places for exercise, at a much smaller radius.

To introduce openness, opportunities of communication, or finding new ways of improving mental fitness that is more suitable to the private sphere then becomes crucially important. Eventually, from an urban renewal perspective, the city will be rebuilt, and the living space is re-imagined for this new paradigm of remote communication. However, under present circumstances, while we continue to fight against covid and the economic trouble, what can we do now that can have an immediate effect on people without having to wait for the time and resources to re-imagine and build our cities?

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Plants and Pets: According to google trends, words like plants and gardening were twice as popular in 2020 as compared to previous years, an abnormal high compared to years of stable seasonal fluctuations. In terms of businesses, 71% of garden center owners reported a significant increase in sales, and over 90 percent reported an increase in sales overall. This is quite a surprising number considering how other businesses like restaurants and retail suffered tremendously due to the pandemic.

Image 3: Google Trends shows that “gardening” became twice as popular in 2020 compared to years of stable seasonal fluctuations. Data source: Google Trends (https://www.google.

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com/trends).

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Plants and mental health: The stories are plenty, but what is the real effect that plants have on mental health?

Plants have clinically been used as therapy for decades in the process called Horticultural Therapy. There have been extensive publications regarding the emotional and mental health benefits associated with plants, addressing reduced anxiety and stress, decreased depression, and enhancing productivity and attention.

Houseplants provide a mirror into how we are doing on the inside and remind us of when and how to take care of ourselves. They promote mindfulness, inspire us to keep going and remind us that we also need care.

Studies have also shown that contact with nature reduces rumination, and significantly reduces activity in sgPFC , the part of the brain associated with anxiety and depression. Physiologically, even small amounts of exposure to nature reduce heart rate, blood pressure, and 177

change the adrenaline and cortisol levels.

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Another relatively new theory that is being tested has to do with the microbes that you obtain from interacting and consuming plants. Microbes in plants and soil are found to have positive effects on the immune system. Newer studies have also shown that these microbiomes are also capable of communicating to the brain through what is described as the “microbiome gut-brain access” and “microbiome airway access” that promoted mental fitness.

These microbes are found to be effective in preventing allergies, asthma, and have been proven by experiments to mitigate symptoms of mental disorders.

Pets and Mental Health: Pets are also good for mental health. Like plants, pets act as an agency to care for and provides interactivity and connection. Pets also bring with them more diverse microbes, which adds to the benefits of boosting immune systems and reducing inflammation. Petting therapy is also a beloved and effective activity, helping people deal with anxiety and stress in the cutest way possible.

Pets and plants are also commonly associated with communities, where people can interact, exchange information, and connect.13 Why don’t we have them?

The main complaints often fall into one of the following: Space and Competence. Plants and pets all require physical places to be in, and some degree of know-how and knowledge to make sure they are healthy and even alive.

Space can sometimes extend beyond the meaning of physical space. In the urban environment, many apartments do not allow having pets or are not suited to have pets. Competence too can have trickling effects down the way. If the plant or pet is in poor health, it can lead to even more frustration and anxiety, which is the opposite of what we want.

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Goldfish Architecture For the SBAU 2021, in response to building the more resilient city, Obuchi Laboratory at the University of Tokyo have envisioned a new form of sustainable household appliance that utilizes the therapeutic qualities of plants and pet to address the mental issues exposed by the pandemic. Goldfish architecture is essentially a smallscale aquaponics system that utilizes the symbiotic relationship of fish and plants to unite the positive mental effects of plants and plants. The aquaponics system also provides a great environment for growing edible plants such as herbs and lettuce, giving it the extra dimension of democratized food production that can inspire more sustainable living in the urban environment.

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Image 4&5: The Symbiotic Relation-

For there are no specialized appliance or spatial configuration that is specifically designed for maintaining mental health in the urban environment, Goldfish

ship between goldfish and plants.

(Photos from the aquaponics experiments conducted at the University of Tokyo, Obuchi Laboratory)

Architecture fills in that gap. We believe that Goldfish Architecture has the potential to become a new form of sustainable household appliance and will be incorporated into every household like microwaves and refrigerators.

Considering the most common concerns and challenges mentioned earlier, its footprint can be as small as a microwave, and the integrated IoT control system will ensure that even on such a small scale, the plants and pets experience is reliable and fulfilling.

We believe that the therapeutic effects of plants and pets are the most sustainable and applicable ways of addressing mental fitness in the urban environment on a massive scale. Everyone can enjoy the natural healing 179

benefits of having plants and pets, as well as the added

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benefits of improving indoor air quality and growing fresh food. The collective effects in an urban environment also mean that there will be more plants in the city, and it will raise awareness for more sustainable forms of urban development.

Towards a more sustainable future.

While the pressing issue now is to beat the virus and recover the economy, we still have pressing issues ahead of us. Food crisis, global warming, and deteriorating air quality are some of the most forceable and pressing issues. Goldfish Architecture, while humble in its form and effects, provides an opportunity for many people to take a step towards a more sustainable future by having a better mental state, growing some of their own foods, and bringing more of nature into cities.

By 2050, we would need to produce 70% more food than we do today , which means that we will need to produce more food in the next 30 years than the last 1000 years combined. This is a real challenge with an urbanizing society and aging population. Controlled environment urban farming and switching towards a more plant-based diet are two of the most promising ways to solve the food crisis. Farming in a controlled environment maximizes land use, allowing us to grow vertically, and produce as much as 350 times more than we can on flat ground .

Controlled environment farming also uses as much as 95% less water compared to traditional farming, which is a huge number considering that 70% of all freshwater use is for farming. Growing food in an urban environment where it is needed also saves tremendous amounts of energy in transportation, and a faster farm-to-table time also improves freshness and reduces the need for preservative measures.

Global climate change and urban air quality are also pressing issues to be solved. Plants, and particularly plants in urban settings, indoors and on building exteriors, have shown to be a viable solution to these issues. Experiments conducted by NASA since the 1980s have shown indoor plants to be extremely effective at removing VOCs and

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improving air quality . Newer studies also show that the

effects more impressive . Urban modeling tools have also shown that plants in cities and on architectural roofs and exteriors can significantly reduce the heat island effects of the city. Lowering the average temperature as much as 2 degrees Celsius . Plants in the city and indoors can also absorb CO2s, making for a more pleasant and productive space as well as offsetting some of the city’s carbon footprint.

The goal is to properly deal with the issues of climate

Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

microbes around plants also help purity the air, making the

change and food crisis without sacrificing or limiting people’s quality of life. These inevitable changes in the future also magnify the effects of the overall mental fitness of the population. We need to make sure that people are educated and prepared with the proper mental capacity to deal with the challenges that change the way we live.

people’s mental health is a great way to start addressing

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urban environment, while simultaneously improving

T

Introducing more plants to building a more sustainable

these issues.

Conclusion: The Covid-19 global pandemic posed some surprising challenges that shifted the perspective on urban resilience.

In times like this, we need to think creatively to overcome these challenges, as well as seeing this as an opportunity for us to focus on building a better, more resilient future.

Goldfish Architecture tries to shed light on some of the most pressing issues humanity will have to face and proposes sustainable ways of dealing with them. Believing in a more democratized form of development, Obuchi Laboratory at the University of Tokyo thinks that we need to incite the collective effort of the urban population to achieve results.

Sustainability, either it be food crisis, emissions, or air quality, should be more relatable to everyone.

Sustainability should not be just about politics and big corporations, it is about the food we eat, the plants we care for, and the goldfish that we find as such cute and healing companions.

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Appendix

8.2 Komagome Terrace Selected Images from Urban Farming Experiments

Goldfish Terrace In April 2020, I began exploring with aquaponics on my terrace in Tokyo. The initial set up was very simple, and the aquaponic aspect of the system was to provide shading and water filtration to the fish. Water from the fish tanks were also used to water various potted plants, as they are rich in nutrients.

This system was home to many goldfish and medaka。The plants include water hyacinth, frog bite, duckweed, olive, and lemon cypress.

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment T ADS

Indoor Aquaponics Greens Garden I then moved on to experiment with growing leafy greens and herbs indoors by the window. This uses the same principles, but I added a growing bed or aquaponic container to accommodate the lettuce and mints that I was growing.

Goldfish are still the main residents of this system, and the plants include lettuce mix, spearmint and duckweed.

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Appendix

Goldfish Terrace In April 2020, I began exploring with aquaponics on my terrace in Tokyo. The initial set up was very simple, and the aquaponic aspect of the system was to provide shading and water filtration to the fish. Water from the fish tanks were also used to water various potted plants, as they are rich in nutrients.

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment T ADS

Indoor Aquaponics Greens Garden I then moved on to experiment with growing leafy greens and herbs indoors by the window. This uses the same principles, but I added a growing bed or aquaponic container to accommodate the lettuce and mints that I was growing.

Goldfish are still the main residents of this system, and the plants include lettuce mix, spearmint and duckweed.

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Decentralized Urban Farming in the Domestic Environment

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