#agritecture workshop

We also want to express one last big thank you to everyone who helped make this workshop possible:

Perkins+Will for sponsoring, hosting day two, and for your amazing work on the Urban Ag Green Infrastructure CASP Plan for LA 

LA Urban Farms for your silver sponsorship and for bringing a beautiful Tower Garden

Community Healing Gardens for getting through LA Unified School District’s bureaucracy and building a great organization we could donate a +farm to

Archi’s Acres for delivering a fantastic keynote by Colin Archipley

River LA for contributing to the CASP Plan and helping our participants understand the site neighborhood

The LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI) for graciously hosting day one of the event

You can review the RiverLA website and the Urban Ag Green Infrastructure Plan for more information on the LA River, and you can check out the below blog post by Leigh Christy of Perkins+Will. Leigh was a major contributor to the Urban Ag Plan and will be very active with the upcoming workshop.

What follows is Leigh’s blog post, originally posted here:

The much-maligned Los Angeles River flows 51 miles from its headwaters in the San Fernando Valley to the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach, capturing water from an 871-square mile region. Its path through the Los Angeles basin has varied widely throughout history, but in the 1930’s its current course was cemented – literally – by the Army Corps in an attempt to control seasonal flooding of the rapidly developing central city. As we face a growing number of examples of how this type of single-purpose man-made infrastructure ultimately fails to contain major storm events, it makes sense to explore a different approach to managing the River, specifically one that addresses flooding without exacerbating other problems. With this in mind, many Angelenos are actively lobbying for a transformation of our river into a valuable amenity that is integral to the welfare of the city as opposed to a “back-of-house” component of flood control infrastructure.

River-adjacent projects such as the PiggyBack Yard and the adaptive reuse of the historic Lincoln Heights Jail have helped Perkins+Will Los Angeles experience these issues first hand and given us the opportunity to illustrate how holistic sustainable thinking – both environmentally and socially – can enrich a site and a region. The massive PiggyBack Yard vision viewed Hurricane Katrina and other global storm events as a wake-up call to modernize city infrastructure to make it work with natural systems, not against them, while also creating a multivalent urban oasis in the process. On a smaller scale, the Lincoln Heights Jail is envisioned to be a transformative force in the neighborhood and region. It seeks to connect and incubate at multiple levels, with a focus on regenerating resources and sustaining economic and social viability.

Take water, for example. The Lincoln Heights Jail adaptive reuse concept couples program proposals with physical proposals in order to allow for the utilization of on-site water for the majority of its water use needs.  Two on-site loops are put forth: a food loop and a stormwater loop. The food loop showcases leading-edge urban agriculture strategies by combining aquaculture and hydroponic vegetative crop production into a highly sustainable aquaponic system. The stormwater loop begins with collecting water on the jail roof and surrounding site, then funneling it into a storage cistern. Separately, grey water from the domestic lavatories and showers – and potentially also black water from toilet fixtures – is treated in a biofiltration tank before joining the stormwater in the cistern for reuse in toilet fixtures as well as for irrigation of non-edible planting areas.

While these techniques help the Lincoln Heights Jail maximize its on-site water use, Southern California’s low rainfall rates makes this approach to water management an even more high-impact solution. In the long-term, site boundaries for the water system do not end at the property line. The Lincoln Heights Jail envisions itself fitting into a larger watershed framework that incorporates water run-off from surrounding streets, the city water supply, and the Los Angeles River.  For example, in a significant flooding event, a portion of the site is designed as a detention basin to absorb some of the peak river flow. Detained water is then stored to recharge the aquifer, with the possibility of reuse for site and public way irrigation.

While issues of water management are paramount to the design of any environmentally sensitive project, river adjacent projects should be especially proactive in taking advantage of the opportunity to also enable access to the waterfront, provide valuable open space, and support the re-stitching of a neighborhood’s social fabric. As both environmentally and socially regenerative solutions to disturbed ecosystems and blighted built environments, the overall “riverly” visions of projects such as the PiggyBack Yard and the Lincoln Heights Jail is to enable multifaceted natural and cultural growth.

In the end, the revitalization of the river can be argued from many viewpoints, from issues of water conservation to issues of flood control, from issues of social justice to issues of economic development. Why it should happen is obvious. What should happen becomes clearer with every project proposal. In the near future, the key to success will be defining how to effectively engage a multitude of voices in search of a shared solution with a multiplicity of purpose.  We encourage you to share your thoughts below.

This post was co-authored with Shawn Godkin.

POSTED: April 11, 2013 | By: Leigh Christy

After lots of introductions and initial conversations, we moved as a group to Aeronaut Brewing Co. in Somerville, and then Greentown labs, where we split into our teams, enjoyed delicious beer and had the opportunity to learn from established vertical and urban farming professionals.  From the benefits of mushroom farming to strategic problem solving, the topics covered by the speakers on the first night gave all the work-shoppers a well-rounded introduction to vertical farming.

Saturday

Agritecture brought breakfast for everyone, and we immediately jumped into meeting rooms to start our daylong sprint.  After pleasantries, Team 3 was feeling like a well-oiled machine.  We had planned out our schedule hour by hour, divided tasks up into inter-disciplinary groups and had plenty of extra time built in to solve potential problems, just in case.  As the morning turned to afternoon though, our concept farm was still an idea cloud that was undetailed, over budget and not actionable.  This isn’t to say things were going poorly.  In fact, our discussion, between ten relative strangers, was incredibly respectful, upbeat, and creative.  The only thing it lacked was the pointed detail required to meet our deliverable goals.

With some inter-team mingling, and sandwiches and salad behind us, the progress started to flow. Our landscape architects and urban planners created a beautiful mock up of our site, with the help of our engineers and our policy expert.  In the next room, our marketing guru, farming program expert and business planners were crunching numbers, making strategic business decisions and building the groundwork for a functional farm.  After some time apart, the two sides reconvened, and our plan was finalized.  Every Team 3 member contributed to our strategy, our final vision, and our delivered presentation.  We ultimately presented our concept farm, named Co-Gro Somerville, and walked away as winners.

See the full winning presentation ppt here and also on periscope here! 

After talking with members of other teams, I learned that my experience with Team 3 was representative of the entire workshop.  Every team goes through a learning curve, and that’s great. Some of the most valuable and fun parts of the weekend are working together to break down barriers between people, filling in knowledge gaps across the team, and embracing individual expertise in the group.  I can’t speak highly enough about every participant and speaker at the Boston workshop (but especially Team 3!).  

Thank you to Henry, and the Blue Planet team for putting everything together, to Sarah Brezniak of Captus Group – the local organizer – for making our workshop dreams come true, and to Sasaki, City Soil and FreshBox Farms for their generous sponsorship and awesome and inspiring presentations on Saturday afternoon.  Also, a special shout out to the members of the Co-Gro Somerville team, Kerry, Connie, Matt, Laura, Sumer, Ami, Elango, Marianne, and Ricky.  The experience of working with smart, talented and creative people across all the teams was career changing, and to all you readers – I hope you sign up for the workshop in your local city!

By Ben Pasco-Anderson

So, What is Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)?

BPS ROOT MODULE WITH DWARF WHEAT PLANTS (NASA)

Controlled Environment Agriculture is an umbrella term used for many varieties of indoor plant cultivation. This can include something as simple as a DIY greenhouse or as complex as NASA’s Biomass Production System. Most generally, however, CEA can be defined as a method of cultivating plants in an enclosed environment, using technology to ensure optimal growing conditions.

The CEA cultivation process can be done in virtually any form of contained area, whether that be a skyscraper, home, or warehouse. This flexibility permits plants, and therefore food, to be grown in almost any location, creating agricultural opportunities in typically infertile areas, such as deserts, cities, or outer space. Moreover, by using this method food may be produced at any time of the year, because CEA’s regulated environment is not subject to the same weather-constrained growing seasons that traditional agriculture is. Subsequently, as concerns build surrounding conventional field agriculture, including its impact on topsoil degradation, water usage, and distance from urban centers (to name just a few), CEA is increasingly being looked toward as a viable alternative for modern food production.

How Does Controlled Environment Agriculture Work?

This agricultural method functions by controlling for several factors that influence the growth rate and health of crops. These factors most often include:

Temperature (air, nutrient solution, root-zone)

Humidity

Carbon dioxide

Light (intensity, spectrum, interval)

Nutrient concentration

Nutrient pH (acidity)

In order to effectively manage growing conditions, CEA farmers typically engineer technological systems, which adjust the input and output of nutrients and resources to the plants within their enclosures. Over time, several forms of such technologies have been experimented with, and refined, to the point where they are now commonly applied within CEA operations. Some notable examples of CEA technologies are the frequently publicized methods of hydroponics, vertical farming, and LED light growing.

To help explain the tech behind the CEA process, we will take a closer look at hydroponic farming as a case-study. This will allow us to see how CEA technologies actually accomplish controlling for environmental factors. Before doing so, however, it is necessary to highlight that hydroponics is a technological method that works in conjunction with Controlled Environment Agriculture to grow food. Without the controlled environment, many of the positive aspects of hydroponic growing never actually come to fruition.

What is hydroponics?

Hydroponics is an engineered way of cultivating plants that uses a soil-less growth medium and an optimized nutrient solution in order to deliver the calculated resources that a crop requires. Because of this, plants are theoretically able to uptake the maximum amount of nutrients that they can, in the most efficient way that they can, to subsequently achieve their best possible health and fastest growth.

Research on hydroponics began to develop in the mid-1800s, as botanists and plant nutritionists sought to determine methods of quickly producing healthy food without relying on the weather or access to soil. Over time, improvements in the composition of growth mediums and nutrient cultures, as well as in the understanding of what plants are best grown hydroponically, have led to hydroponics being applied to large-scale agriculture. Today, hydroponic farming has gained popularity as a result of the successes of scientists and commercial growing operations. These groups have worked to position the technology as a possible solution for feeding the ever-growing global population of consumers, as well as for addressing the environmental issues caused by conventional agriculture.

There are many hydroponics techniques that are used within CEA. These techniques vary depending on the medium utilized and whether or not the nutrient solution is circulated or static, among other factors. In order to offer a better grasp on how hydroponics functions within CEA, a few of these techniques are briefly detailed below.

How Do Hydroponic Systems Work?

Fundamentally, hydroponic systems work by applying an engineered nutrient solution to the root system of a plant. This can occur by using any, or a mix, of the following sample methods:

Static Solution Culture A set-up that positions plant root systems directly into a container of nutrient solution, which is either aerated or kept at a low enough level to provide adequate oxygen to the roots. After a certain level of nutrients have been absorbed, the solution is changed out or replenished to ensure maximum growth.

Continuous-flow Solution Culture In this set-up, root systems of plants are constantly exposed to a flowing nutrient solution, as opposed to simply being submersed in it. This enables large-scale maintenance of nutrient levels and conditions, as the vast majority of the solution is stored in a reservoir tank at any given point.

A particularly notable example of Continuous-Flow Solution Culture is the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT). The NFT places plants on a sloped grow-tray with their roots in a watertight mat beneath. A thin, highly oxygenated stream of nutrient solution is then continuously pumped up to the top of the channel, traveling down to either be absorbed by the roots or recycled in the reservoir tank. This process enables the roots to be bare, meaning that little-to-no growing medium is required.

Aeroponics A slight departure from traditional hydroponics, the aeroponics set-up utilizes a mist of solution to deliver nutrients to the plants’ root systems. The unabsorbed mist then condenses and returns via gravity to a reservoir tank for recycling. This technique is used to prevent the plant from becoming water-logged, and to increase the amount of oxygen that is delivered.

How Does Hydroponics Relate to Controlled Environment Agriculture?

Now that we have laid out the basics, it becomes important to reemphasize that hydroponics is a method used within Controlled Environment Agriculture for the best production results. This is not to say that space-saving and nutrient-efficient techniques like vertical farming and hydroponics cannot be implemented to a lesser degree of success in outdoor or uncontrolled environments. However, it is CEA’s cooperation of strategic growing strategies with technological environmental controls that creates optimal agricultural solutions.

The technological environmental controls within a large-scale CEA operation are numerous and often require a great deal of engineering prowess to set-up. At its most basic level, CEA technologies are composed of an interplay between sensors, machines, and computers. Sensors measure the levels of environmental factors (CO2, Temperature, Light, etc..). Machines, such as fans and heaters and LED lighting systems, regulate those monitored levels. Lastly, computers ensure that communication and response between sensors and machines operate smoothly and rapidly.

To reiterate, it is only when all of these items are working in conjunction with one another that a growing operation can truly reap the full benefits of CEA.

What Are the Benefits of Controlled Environment Agriculture?

Returning to the case of the grocery-store shopper, it seems like all of this information generally boils down to the question: Why should I care about this?

While there are many great answers to this question, which we will address in future blogs, some of the principle benefits of Controlled Environment Agriculture are that it enables:

Much Lower Water Consumption CEA systems are optimized to minimize evaporation and excess – using no more than the amount of water required by each crop

Cleaner Growing Practices (For You and the Environment) A CEA system has many fewer pests, weeds, and diseases to contend with. This means that CEA growers do not need to place nasty pesticides and herbicides in your food and waterways, like traditional agriculture does.

Better Location and Distribution to Cities Because a CEA system may be located almost anywhere, and crops can be grown using much less land, it is easier to position a farm within or close to urban centers.

No Usage of GMOs Necessary The monitoring and mechanical solutions utilized in CEA systems ensure consistently high, healthy yields, making the usage of GMOs unnecessary.

Consistent Availability A CEA system ensures that crops are always in-season and experience optimal climates, regardless of whether there may be frosts or droughts outside. This means that consumers get the freshest, most reliably grown produce all year round.

After examining the food production results attained by the cooperation of hydroponics, vertical farming, and other techniques with Controlled Environment Agriculture, the question consumers should be asking is not, “Why should I care about this?”, it’s “Where can I get some?!”

Our farm is located in Millis, Massachusetts, currently serving the Greater Boston area through a network of retailers. To get notified when we post a new informational blog, or to stay-up-to-date about our business, sign up for the FreshBox newsletter.

The more we explore the makings of ecosystems, the more complex we find them to be. Even now, we have cataloged only 1.9 million of an estimated 15 million living species on earth. Most of those we have cataloged remain obscured in mystery as the complexities of their lives—their functional ecologies—still exceed our capacity for scientific description. This reservoir of biodiversity is the very core of my passion—protecting, celebrating and promoting it is the vantage point from which I approach all of our projects. Humans rely on this reservoir of biodiversity for their very existence. Without the millions of species with which we share our beloved planet, we could not and would not exist. The scope and complexity of this dependence is truly astonishing. Even the human body itself is an ecosystem: about 3 pounds of the average human body’s weight is comprised entirely of bacteria. From the air we breathe and the fresh water in our homes to the medicines that keep us healthy, we depend entirely on the biodiversity of the planet. Nowhere is our dependence more immediate and more apparent than with our food. Farms are complex, dynamic, and fascinating ecosystems. As farmers, we are the creators, the stewards, and the beneficiaries of the ecosystems. Historically, farms were managed as zero-waste cycles. Between the livestock and the produce, all forms of waste were processed and utilized as inputs. In healthy ecosystems, waste is a misnomer and maximum efficiency is the modus operandi. Vegetable waste feeds the livestock, livestock waste feeds the soil, and the soil produces the vegetables. But within this neat cycle are millions of unseen and underappreciated players with critical functional roles: agrobiodiversity. The historic or traditional farm was a characteristically messy landscape with a mix of crops, pastures, fencerows, and woodlands that built a balanced ecology through the resilience inherent in diverse systems. Modern industrial farms, on the contrary, have resulted in ever-more simplified landscapes with fewer and fewer living components. The heterogeneity of the messy farm gave way to massive fields of single-species crops and isolated confined animal feeding operations. The traditional small farm was teeming with biodiversity—especially insects. Pest species were present, but so was an abundance of beneficial insects: the predators and parasites that feed on pests as well as the pollinators that ensure fruit set. Over 100,000 different species including bees, birds, bats, wasps, flies, butterflies, moths, ants, beetles and bugs all contribute pollination services worldwide. Today, many industrial farms rely exclusively on only one species—the honeybee—which is highly susceptible to disease outbreak and hive collapse. Similarly, countless species of beneficial insects once kept pest populations in check, though most of them depended on adjacent non-crop habitats like hedgerows, woodlots, and meadows for their life-cycles. Our modern reliance on chemical pesticides has eliminated most of these species from farms while simultaneously selecting for resistant strains of crop pests. Farms in the United States have increased fertilizer application over 700% in the past 40 years. In 2008, US farms also applied 516 million pounds of pesticides (up from 196 million pounds in 1981). As farms have shifted towards monocultures, a host of problems have arisen that impact not only the ecosystem but our entire society. The runoff of farm nutrients in the upper midwest, for example, is the primary contributor to Mississippi River eutrophication and the resulting hypoxia and ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico. Pesticide application not only eliminates populations of beneficial insects, it can contaminate groundwater, kill fish and amphibians, and wreak havoc on the balance of any ecosystem. Bumblebees, for example, have declined by over 25% across most of the northern temperate world. The loss of genetic diversity in food crops through the ongoing extinction of heirloom and uncommon varieties threatens the very future of our food supply as climate change and emerging diseases make common varieties more and more vulnerable in an uncertain future. Yet, in cities around the world, small-scale, environmentally and community focused farms are experiencing a renaissance. Small farms are emerging not merely as sources of food; in cities they are becoming repositories of our cultural and ecological heritage. They become educational landscapes and interpretive sites where urban children learn about food and about nature. They become part of our green infrastructure as well, providing ecosystem services rather than exporting pollutants. They bring communities together around the elemental joy of the pastoral landscape. With few exceptions, this has been happening organically, through the grass-roots efforts of impassioned individuals and with only limited intervention by design and planning professionals. Design and planning, however, can strengthen this movement. As urban centers continue to expand, so will the challenges and opportunities for urban agriculture. Now more than ever, as we imagine innovative functional roles of farm landscapes within and around cities, we must seek to rebuild the complex landscape structures to support a robust agro-ecological system. As designers, we must strive to integrate sound science into the creative process and explore the spatial synergy between our natural lands, recreational lands, and our productive agricultural lands all at the interface of the burgeoning modern city. How can a stormwater basin serve as a source population for beneficial insect predators? How can the landscape of a public park intentionally rebuild pollinator populations adjacent to a community vegetable garden? How can we leverage diverse yet intentional native plant palettes to contribute mutual benefits with local farms? Can we design adjacent uses for maximum integration of beneficial biodiversity back into urban and peri-urban landscapes? The design of productive urban ecological systems represents a new frontier for designers, and at Sasaki we have been pushing ourselves to lead the charge. In the heart of Shanghai, for example, our master plan for Zhangjaibang Park locates community gardens in a transitional space between neighborhoods and a public complex of wetlands, meadows and woodlands. This design serves for maximum exchange of biodiversity (Fig. 1). Similarly, one of Sasaki’s current project in the Philippines envisions a community agricultural corridor abutted on both ends by natural areas that will function as source populations for beneficial insects and birds (Fig. 2). By continuing our pursuit of these ideals across our practice, we challenge the dichotomy between what is urban and what is rural, what is built and what is wild. We imagine an ecosystem that is both city and farm, buzzing with all kinds of life. Click here to read the first installment of Micro/Macro: From SUSTAINable to sustENABLE: Food, Design, and Our Daily Lives, and here for the second installment: Urban Water Recharge. Photo courtesy of Gena Morgis