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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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!