Group 07
FARM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

Agenda; Farm Follows Function aims to explore how we can minimise environmental impact and reduce the carbon footprint of food production through the local growing of produce in cities. By holding a design charrette we will be investigating the future of urban farming in Manchester City Centre and creating detailed designs of a ‘Super Farm’ for Hive’s future Expansion.

Eleanor S / Aniela Jo M / Patrick M / Michael R / Yitian L / Shaw Ian LK

Eleanor S
INTRODUCING THE THE TEAM

Our team is made up of 6 MArch.1 Students at the Manchester School of Architecture:
[From top left]

Aniela Migasiuk – Praxxis / Undergraduate at MSA / Part I at Axis Mason

Shaw Labrianidis – USE / Undergraduate at University of Liverpool / Part I at Shedkm

Eleanor Strange – Praxxis / Undergraduate at MSA / Part I at AEW Architects

Patrick Millar – USE / Undergraduate at MSA / Part I at BDP

Mike Rostock – USE / Undergraduate at University of Liverpool / Part I at GA Studio

Yitian Liao – USE / Undergraduate at Hunan City University / Worked at Shanghai Dblant engineering Design & Consultation
Posted 27 Feb 2020 18:36
Eleanor S
INTRODUCING OUR COLLABORATOR: HIVE URBAN FARMS

Hive grow food with a purpose; to drastically reduce food miles and bring food production back to local communities. They use small urban spaces to grow incredibly fresh food, and sell to restaurants in the city who share their passion for locally-sourced produce.
They currently grow oyster and shiitake mushrooms in a purpose-built indoor farm, in Manchester City Centre, and deliver them to local restaurants within one hour of harvest.
Their indoor mushroom farm is the beginning of a much larger vision to make cities more self-sustainable, by combining various indoor farming methods like hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics and mushroom production.

Dien and Gareth met at the University of Manchester where they both became interested in cities and sustainability. They wrote dissertations which focused on the technical and socio-economic aspects of indoor farming, and later decided to test their theoretical knowledge in the real world. They founded Hive Urban Farms in April 2017, with a vision of bringing people and food closer together. Annie joined the team whilst completing her degree in Plant Science at University of Manchester with the ambition to introduce her specialist knowledge of Hydroponics to Hive Urban Farms.

Website: hiveurbanfarms.com
Twitter: @HiveUrbanFarms
Instagram: @hiveurbanfarms



Posted 29 Feb 2020 19:19
Eleanor S
INTRODUCING OUR COLLABORATOR: BDP

BDP is an international, multidisciplinary architectural practice with an office based in Manchester. The Manchester team’s portfolio covers a wide range of sectors, scales, clients and building types.
In 2018 BPD completed Boxpark Wembley. This Boxpark re-purposes a portal framed shed and 20 shipping containers to create a flexible event space, bars, kitchens and dining areas.
During Events week Farm Follows Function will be spending the day at the BDP Manchester office, giving us an insight into architectural practice and the opportunity to discuss our project with architects. We will also be given a talk from the principle and head of Manchester’s office, Gavin Elliot, on Boxpark Wembley and a crash course in shipping container design.
Posted 1 Mar 2020 11:13
Eleanor S
FARM FOLLOWS FUNCTION X HIVE

Back in February we met up with the Hive Team (Gareth, Dien & Annie) to introduce ourselves and discuss the Events project. Hive ran through their background, enterprise, ethos and vision. We then discussed what they want from us and developed a brief for our project together. It was decided that we should produce one or more designs for Hive’s future ‘Super Farm’ which incorporates a number of shipping containers for growing various different crops, research and experiments into new crops and the spaces needed to facilitate a closed loop, zero waste system.
We planned a visit to the farm, at Pollard Yard, for our MArch team in the near future and discussed potential dates they would be able to meet and engage in the design process during Events weeks.
Posted 4 Mar 2020 12:02
Eleanor S
MEETING WITH HIVE & HIGHER GROUND AT KAMPUS

What a great turn out on Thursday for the Events 20 presentations. Thanks to all the undergraduates that came along, we hope you feel inspired by all the Events 20 projects. GET VOTING! It would be great to have you on the Farm Follows Function team.

Following the presentation we headed to Kampus to meet with our collaborator Hive and Higher Ground.
Kampus is Manchetser City Centre's new garden neighbourhood including apartments and independent food & drink vendors set by the canal. It is still under construction but the pop-up space is currently occupied by the restaurant Higher Ground.

We'll be introducing them as a new collaborator soon so keep an eye on the blog!

At our meeting we introduced Hive to Higher Ground, who are now establishing business relations, and we discussed using the space for our Farm Follows Function exhibition at the end of Events week.
The exhibition will take place on the evening of 7th May and will be a Farm Follows Function X Hive X Higher Ground collaboration showcasing the design work we will be completing for Hive,; Hive's fresh and locally grown produce; and Higher Ground's new restaurant and ethos.
It will be an evening focusing on the importance of locally grown produce from the views of architects / urban designers, suppliers / growers and restaurateurs.

We hope to see you there! More information to come closer to the event via the blog.
Posted 7 Mar 2020 13:54
Eleanor S
INTRODUCING THE COLLABORATOR: HIGHER GROUND AT KAMPUS MCR

Higher Ground is a pop up restaurant located at Kampus MCR whilst the development is still under construction. It is a partnership between Richard and Joseph, the head chef (pictured top right). They are passionate about locally grown produce from the North West, Manchester brewed beer and natural wine.

Farm Follows Function will be collaborating with Higher Ground for our final exhibition: showcasing the Events 20 work and highlighting the importance of partnership between urban designers, suppliers and restaurateurs in order to address the current global issue of food miles.
Posted 14 Mar 2020 14:50
Eleanor S
WHAT IS URBAN FARMING?

Urban farming can be simply defined as growing and producing food in a city or heavily populated area.

Urban farming is not only a commercial activity and economic venture. The main aims of urban farming are firstly, to address environmental issues raised by the transportation of food and therefore, reduce food miles and carbon footprint of our food. Secondly, it aims to educate the population as to where our food comes from, especially in cities. Finally, it increases our access to fresh and locally grown produce which is particularly beneficial to disadvantaged communities.

‘Urban’ can be interpreted as inner city or the perimeter of a city. No single aspect characterises the site or placement of a site. Just as long as it is urban and within reasonable distance of the people and companies it will be supplying. They have been known to be on disused land such as brownfield sites, ex-landfills, rooftops and car parks. Cities that are now striving for environmental improvement are increasing the quantity and quality of public transport to encourage people to use their cars less. This approach also means much of the car parking spaces in these cities will theoretically not be needed, so the city councils are dedicating these spaces to urban farming.

Urban Farms can be used to grow crops and rear animals but restrictions, regarding the type of growing and whether animals can be reared, are imposed by the city councils and the city is divided into ‘zones’. These zones are determined by a variety of factors including the influence of retail, education, safety and the consideration of livestock.
Posted 14 Mar 2020 16:33
Aniela Jo M
PRECEDENT: SQUARE ROOTS

Based in Brooklyn, New York, Square Roots has developed hydroponic farm “modules” installed in reclaimed shipping containers that can grow certain non-GMO vegetables 24 hours a day, without pesticides.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, a third of the entire world’s food supply is wasted. Square Roots, co-founded by Kimbal Musk (Elon Musk’s brother) and Tobias Peggs in 2017, wants to reduce waste by growing food as close to the consumer as possible.

The modules, which use software-controlled LED lighting and irrigation systems, can be set up in parking lots or even inside a large warehouse or industrial building, enabling a food maker to access fresh ingredients locally for use in their dishes.

Today they produce and supply a number of herbs and leafy greens to various supermarkets and suppliers, including mint, basil and other herbs.
Posted 16 Mar 2020 14:00
Aniela Jo M
PRECEDENT: GROWUP

Founded in 2013, GrowUp Urban Farms produce fresh fish and baby-leaf salads year-round in a controlled growing environment without the use of pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides.

From 2015 to 2017, they operated "Unit 84" - a commercial-scale aquaponic urban farm. Based inside an industrial warehouse in Beckton, it combines aquaculture (farming fish) and hydroponics (growing plants in a nutrient solution without soil) in a recirculating system.

The company sells directly to local stores and restaurants, slashing transport costs and carbon-dioxide emissions associated with moving food over long distances.

They are currently using their expertise and knowledge from Unit 84 in working to design and develop a much larger farm, one that could be replicated all over the world.
Posted 16 Mar 2020 14:04
Eleanor S
INSIDE HIVE'S FARM

Hive are currently located in a shipping container at Pollard Yard in Ancoats.
They chose shipping containers as the architecture of their urban farms as they are cheap to retrofit and more importantly can enclose artificially created micro-climates specifically and perfectly created for the desired crops inside.
Their current crop of mushrooms requires no natural light, another reason why the shipping container is ideal. They use UV strip lighting to stimulate the growth and create an environment with very a high humidity which is the perfect growing conditions for Hive's mushrooms.

Posted 21 Mar 2020 21:00
Eleanor S
HIVE'S PASSION: THE SOCIAL VALUE OF URBAN FARMING

Annie Gardiner-Piggott is one third of Hive's team. Annie has a great passion for urban farming and shared her enthusiasm and devotion the the field each time Farm Follows Function met with Hive.

Annie spoke to us about why urban farming is important, what it means to Hive and herself and explained the social value of urban farming:

"The main reason I got into urban farming is because I believe we should all know where our food comes from, and because everyone deserves local produce - even in cities. We live in a global society now, where our food is shipped from farms in countries hundreds of miles away with no public knowledge of where it's from - but that's not right. For centuries we always knew where our food was grown and by who, and it was a crucial component of the structure of our communities. These days, we don't have that - and it shows. I want to change that, I want people to be able to buy produce from me and know that I grew it, I cared for it, and I delivered it. It makes for much better quality food, and much happier people as a result of both the quality, and more importantly, the human element too. We need to be connected with our food, and we at hive want to make that connection again with the city of Manchester."

Posted 21 Mar 2020 21:10
Yitian L
FARM FACT

Urban farming has been developed alongside the growth of its cities. it was so efficient in fact, that many of china’s largest cities almost exclusively sustained themselves with local produce- most was sold within 10km of the farm, and within a day of its cultivation, explains the wwf. in shanghai particularly, the government refined a very effective system for not only food production but waste management as well, recycling biomass into usable clean energy. in the late 20th century, shanghai produced ‘nearly 100% of chicken, eggs and milk, 80% of vegetables and freshwater fishes, and 50% of pork’ in a 300,000 hectare city-managed green ring integrated into the city- a cyclical and veritable urban farm.
Posted 21 Mar 2020 22:14
Patrick M
FARM FACT

In 2016, Urban Farms supplied food to around 700 million city dwellers, equating to just above one quarter of the worlds urban population.
Posted 22 Mar 2020 15:24
Shaw Ian LK
FARM FACT

Garden plots can be up to 15 times more productive than rural holdings. An area of just one sqm can provide 20kg of food each year. Urban agriculture also yields a much more diverse set of crops as urban farmers tend to cultivate less common crops and plants. this promotes agricultural diversity.
Posted 22 Mar 2020 16:37
Patrick M
TIMETABLE

The brief schedule of events for the first week of the Farm Follows Function event.
Posted 22 Mar 2020 21:34
Patrick M
TIMETABLE II

The brief schedule of events for the second week of the Farm Follows Function event.
Posted 22 Mar 2020 21:35
Michael R
FARM FACT

Urban farming can reduce the heat-island effect within cities, caused by concrete structures, asphalt and deforestation. Devoting more urban space to growing food and plants can help reduce the temperature in cities, just another way urban farming can combat climate change!

A study was completed by the University of Cardiff in 2007 that showed roof top gardens and vertical garden walls can significantly reduce the temperature of the surrounding air by as much as 6 degrees Celsius by shading building surfaces, deflecting solar radiation and releasing moisture into the surrounding atmosphere. In turn, this can reduce urban air pollution around cities.
Posted 22 Mar 2020 22:59
Eleanor S
OUR SITE: TIB STREET CAR PARK

As part of the council's plans for sustainability they are aiming to improve the quality, quantity and frequency of public transport. Many of Manchester's newly improved public realms implement pedestrianised areas or public transport only roads. This all acts as an incentive to decrease the number of private cars driving into and parking in the city centre. Therefore, many of the multi storey car parks in the city centre will be made redundant.
One question that hasn't been explored by the council yet is what will happen to these structures once they become disused? The obvious answer would be a developer snaps up the plot and constructs overpriced and under demanded apartments. However, there is a much better use for these structures that doesn't involve demolition and has a much more positive social impact on the city.
CREATE AN URBAN FARM... or even a SUPERFARM!
Posted 22 Mar 2020 23:10
Michael R
OUR SITE: TIB STREET CAR PARK II

The site we have chosen to explore during our Farm Follows Function project is the NCP car park located on Tib Street. We have chosen this site firstly for its location. It is situated in the heart of the Northern Quarter - one of Manchester's most densely populated areas by restaurants and independent food sellers. This would mean that the produce grown on the site can be delivered easily and quickly on foot or by bike: completely cutting out food miles, reducing the carbon footprint of the produce and bringing food production back to the local area.
Posted 23 Mar 2020 00:14
Michael R
OUR SITE: TIB STREET CAR PARK III

Tib street car park has the potential to let an urban farm start on a smaller scale and expand as demand and crop diversity increase.
During our initial explorations of what a 'Superfarm' is and concept stage design we will investigate the potential of the site and propose phases of the superfarm as well as additional programmes that could link to the farm through the retrofit of the existing structure.
Posted 23 Mar 2020 00:28
Aniela Jo M
FARM FACT

The average city could grow enough vegetables to meet the recommended vegetable intake if it devotes just 10% of its city limit area to urban farming
Posted 23 Mar 2020 09:50