High
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
With fast growing populations mega cities have increasingly relied on obtaining their food supply from abroad. Taking London as a case study, the city has shifted from being a food capital to becoming a city that is dependent on imports. Due to soaring oil prices, increased transportation costs and traffic congestion, the current model has put the city’s food security at risk. While alternative models have been proposed, they overlook the idea of mass production, disregard problems of distribution, are not dynamic and cannot meet the changing demands of the city. In this context, we propose an air-based urban crop production and distribution network that brings food production back into the boundaries of the city. Our project proposes a prototypical urban farm model that is autonomous, decentralised and dynamically networked – characteristics which are essential for managing growth and distribution logics of a system capable of dealing with the complexity of a city and its changing demands. Therefore, Third Layer was designed to allow for on-demand delivery and growth. By tapping into social media, real-time data is mined to inform growth and distribution logics. Physical and computational prototypes were explored as a design tool to understand population communication and deployment decisions. Rule-based aggregations were examined to generate a model that is neighbourhood-aware whereas the singular unit is realised as a transformable, mobile growth machine. Third Layer employs London as a prototypical testing ground and by mapping out the city's possible interfaces, the system negotiates between plugging into the existing supermarket infrastructure and the city's grid system. By creating pop up markets, the system adapts to existing infrastructure, creating new forms of spatial organisations that enhance the urban farming experience.
Project Name:
Third Layer
Studio:
Theodore Spyropoulos
Team Name:
High
Team members:
Radwa Mostafa El Fayoumy Ahmed (Egypt), Ashkan Ashki (Iran), Ralph Antoine Gebara (Lebanon), Jose Roldan Caballero (Spain)
Assistant:
Mostafa El-Sayed and Manuel Jiménez García
overall view
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
cluster
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
experience
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
unit unfolded
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
site view
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
section
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
interior
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
cells detail
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
model
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
model
DRL Phase 2 - 2013-14
