Nurturing AgroEcology in Urban Life
A strategy for living alongside food production
A critical part of the climate crisis is the degradation of soil, leading to scientists predicting the UK has approximately 100 harvests left of stable crop production. As an attempt to address the problem this project will explore the possibility of integrating sustainable agriculture into an urban setting, reducing the strain on agricultural land, reducing food miles and widening city biodiversity. Taking guidance from the farming movement, ‘Agroecology,’ a climate conscious, wildlife supporting and community engaged closed loop system will be developed, combining traditional growing with technology driven techniques that will support each other to produce a diverse plate.
Dudley High Street will be the focal point, reinvented as a destination not just for the purchase and consumption of food but also its creation, driven by the needs and engagement of local people. Connecting the community to the food they eat.
High Street Building Occupancy
The majority of the shop fronts are general retail units with many other building occupancies relating to services, clothing, healthcare.
The section of high street has 160 stores/buildings. The majority of the building use are assigned as retail units with many also accommodating to services, banks and cafe’s.
The high street does however contain 24 vacant units, 15% of the studied building usage.
Ramsey’s
Wedged between G P Footwear and the Dental Surgery
Set back in the shadows under the circular cross
Behind the overspill of colour and dazzle
You will find Ramsey’s shop
Cornucopia of ladies fashion
Shoes
Handbags and
Accessories
Born out of West Brom clearance
Been six years grafting
Stretching a profit
Out of lycra and cotton
Cheaper than the exact same jeans
You will find in River Island or H&M
But people still like to haggle for
A pound off here
A fiver there
Ramsey is waiting
Waiting for the people to return
Waiting for Covid to subside
Waiting for the coats to fly
The joggers to shift gear
Blouses to find a new lease of life
So that the drive from Oldbury
Six days a week
Means more than just petrol in the tank
Wasted hours
Asking him about the future
Brings no sugar coating
Of what needs to change
More advertising please
Less traffic down the road
More foot-flow up this end
Where Ramsey offers
Cheap and cheerful
In all the colours of the rainbow
His rails rally already
Outside the shop
Where he would like to see
A revolution
People stop to pass the time though
To talk around it
Time for a change
One way or another
Time for a change
Sooner rather than later
While Ramsey soldiers on
Filling the street with colour
The sun glinting off
A nicely priced
Must have
Stepping Stone 4 adds layers to the High Street. Like the other visions, we wanted to use CoLab Dudley’s principles ‘use nature as a guidebook’ and ‘create conditions for curiosity and experimentation’. The main way we proposed to do this was adding a green canopy to provide shelter, create a hybrid indoor outdoor space welcoming to families and a more communal open space, and support ecosystems.
The population of Dudley in 2021 is circ. 80,000 and including the wider borough totals 313,000.
For one person on the average diet, roughly 2.6 Hectares of farm land is required. A family of four, just over 10 Hectares. A population of 313,000 required 813,800 Hectares, the equivalent of 1,162 football fields or 707,652,174 car parking bays.
FEEDING DUDLEY REQUIRES 1,162 FOOTBALL FIELDS OF FARM LAND
Thesis Concept Image - The Farm House
Taking a fun and more literal approach for providing local food production onto the high street, I looked at layering a farm growing different fruits, vegetables and meat products into the same structure to view the absurdity of growing, processing and packaging within a single structure. Ultimately the project would be as close to being a closed system as possible, where food grown could be fed to the animals and the waste from the animals will be used as fertiliser from the food. Air flow and lighting would not only be critical for the animals, but it also allows the fruit and vegetables to grow faster and more efficiently.
The processes within the Farm House would be very energy intense due to the amount of heating, water and lighting that will be required to house the animals and grow the crops. The project utilises conventional farming methods, ploughing, seeding etc., but without the harmful pesticides that would be usually applied. The farming problem of space efficiency is partially targeted in this proposal. Per m2 in plan does contain a greater yield due to the floor layering, however per m2 of gross internal floor area the yield efficiency remains. To ultimately increase overall yield per m2 aeroponics should be applied to massively increase yield and decrease water consumption.
THESIS PROPOSAL
The redevelopment of the high street is a re-envisaged perception of what the high street is and what it will become. A future look at what the high street will become, with mixed use residential and food growth structure to create dense living accommodation and localised food growth which prevents the need to contribute to deforestation and loss of biodiversity from urbanisation.
As part of the schemes wider aims, the high street and surrounding roads will become part of a network of green corridors, where pedestrian footfall/cycling can increase and the use of polluting vehicles will be greatly reduced. The idea of greatly increasing the density of vegetation along roads and reducing lanes will not only improve the rate of absorbing carbon dioxide, but also reduce noise and reduce temperature spots. The Miyawaki planted method would be used where ever possible to create dense areas of trees and shrubs, as well as quickly create new living conditions for new biodiversity.
The primary focus for the building will be the localised food growth in the vertical farms, several floors of food growth will create a new economy centred around the high street, removing the need to import fresh food from farms from across the country or on the other side of the world. The environment within the farms will be climate controlled, allowing the farms to adjust their climate to the optimum for the specific food. The density at which food can be grown in is almost 400 times greater than conventional farming, which greatly reduces the need to create new farms.
The residential aspects pairs with the farm, in bringing a new generation of people to live above the high street. The new vision of the high street would become an attraction point for people to not only visit but to live in as well. Access to land converted from roads and paving to nature will create value and attraction to the area once again. Eventually the low income stores will transition to stores that cater to the new environment.
This project targets all the XR themes directly or indirectly.
Air & Biodiversity - Creating new and preventing the loss of woodland and habitats.
Food - Growing food local and a much greater yield.
Water - Greatly reducing the resource requirement during farming.
Materiality - Managing sustainable usage of the deconstructed buildings and sourcing of the proposed.
Community - Creating new environments for communities to interact with each other.
Caffe Min
Breakfast
Lunch
Meal deal
Everything you would expect
Fresh from the takeaway menu
Ham baguette
With a little bit of mayonnaise
Jacket potato
Hot cup of coffee
Bacon sarnie
Brown sauce
Not red
Tikka mint mayo panini
Something you might not expect
Sunglasses!
I sit on a long bench
Listening to Tainted Love
Over the radio
Reading one of the many signs
About coffee and good vibes
Jayne and Mustafa
Serve the steady flow of regulars
Some sit outside most of the day
Watching
Chatting
Taking it all in
There’s always a spot for them
As others come and go
Mustafa hopes that more regulars
Will return
From offices
When they can
The future seems uncertain
Until normality returns
Since West Brom
27 years ago
Jayne and Mustafa
Have been working together
She says she “has a thick skin to have put up with him for so long”
He says “she’s the second woman in his life”
Cheerful banter
From a lifetime of serving
Cooking
Cleaning
Managing
This is their third café in Dudley
23 years and still going
Opposite the Full Moon
Tables and chairs on the pavement
Watching the comings and goings
I end up chatting to Kath
Over a cup of tea
As she gets a sausage baguette
For the lady she volunteers with
Kath comes every Friday
For breakfast with her friends and
I see how this all takes shape
Regular
Reliable
Dependable
I say goodbye
Head back up the town
As Magic FM fades in the distance
I think I’ll probably pop in again
For a cup of tea
The interior of the community kitchen would be inviting and colourful to create a positive atmosphere. The colours were abstracted from one of our group collages of food. The kitchen counters are not considered as a back of house element; they have been combined with seating as we are trying to embrace the cooking process. The kitchen desk is designed in a way so multiple people can work together from all sides, with central storage for herbs.
The facade of the kitchen contains a small window so food can be sold outside. We have also created a vertical herb garden so it can be used in the community kitchen. We wanted to keep these below eye-line so people outdoors have a clear view into what’s going on inside.
This street section shows activity from the back of the community kitchen to the other end of the street and how all these elements are working coherently. The street is filled more with people rather than cars. We believe that the outdoor seating, more trees, canopies and street lights can attract people to connect with the High Street.
Nurturing AgroEcology in Urban Life
A strategy for living alongside food production
A critical part of the climate crisis is the degradation of soil, leading to scientists predicting the UK has approximately 100 harvests left of stable crop production. As an attempt to address the problem this project will explore the possibility of integrating sustainable agriculture into an urban setting, reducing the strain on agricultural land, reducing food miles and widening city biodiversity. Taking guidance from the farming movement, ‘Agroecology,’ a climate conscious, wildlife supporting and community engaged closed loop system will be developed, combining traditional growing with technology driven techniques that will support each other to produce a diverse plate.
Dudley High Street will be the focal point, reinvented as a destination not just for the purchase and consumption of food but also its creation, driven by the needs and engagement of local people. Connecting the community to the food they eat.
Bianca and her friends went clothes shopping. As they could smell the delicious food making in the community kitchen, they curiously went inside for the first time. Bianca and her friends were offered freshly made, delicious soup.
Bake ‘n’ Butty
Fairy lights all year round
Three clocks working triple time
More seating at the rear and
Above the sound of something frying in a pan
Laughter
The scrape of cutlery on finished plates
Stacked and cleared
Two cappuccinos
Two toasted teacakes
Footsteps on the lino floor
The hum of radio from somewhere
The clash of a saucepan lid
Tea, milk, two sugars
The tapping of a spoon on a plastic bowl
Fishfinger sandwich to take away
Do you need a receipt?
It won’t be long, alright?
Chips sizzling in the deep fat
Steam escaping the coffee machine
There’s your knife and fork
Musical buttons singing from the till
No sugar, I’m sweet enough
A message left on the answering machine
Phone rings
How can I help you?
Mobile notification
Chatter
Printing
There’s your change
I’ll bring your coffee over
Sausage, egg and chips
Large breakfast, no beans
Two lattes
Milk delivery
Grated cheese in a bag
Butter balanced in the crock of an arm
Is there enough money in the till?
Bacon and egg sandwich to go
Cappuccino
Cheers love
It was lovely, thank you
All this is seen and heard as
I am joined at my table
To talk through
Covid
Cars
Past lives
Old homes
Acceptance
Cooking
Gender
Pubs
Health and
Putting the world back together
My tea is done
I pop my mug back on the counter
All this for the prices of a cuppa I think
Stepping out past the flashing fairy lights
"The new market in Dudley market place in 1983 had a little more aisle space between the stalls, making shopping easier for customers. The market had just reopened after three months spent in Stone Street while it was refurbished. Traditionalists had bitterly attacked the replacing of wooden stalls with metal and the removal of the old-fashioned cobbles. This was taken on May 15, 1983."
Subway
Here, it’s all about the brand.
Green and yellow
Flashes of black
As staff move quickly to
Make subs
6 inch
Foot long
In the lunchtime rush
It’s all go, go, go.
Here, it’s all about the image.
New York subways
Map the walls
Alongside
Legends
Heroes
Iconics
Classics
Not names I would associate
With sandwiches
But to be fair I am not the target here
Too old by a country mile.
Here, it’s all about immediacy
Driven by technology
Attractive to young minds
Thumbs scroll over phones
To place orders
To make payments
To text their mate, who’s
Sat right next to them
Phones, phones, phones
As the Deliveroo driver
Double parks across the street
To pick up a meal deal
As ovens ping and
Cookies slide off trays and
A student picks and goes
No desire to sit in or
Wait a while.
Here, it’s all about speed and
It is busy.
A boy in a boiler suit
Made for a man
Jokes with his mate
He can’t decide what to order
There’s too much choice
He doesn’t know what he wants
He needs inspiration and
The counter guy offers him help
Bread style
Filling
Extra cheese
Drink and a cookie.
His mate ribs him
For getting double Jalapenos
But he doesn’t care.
Here, it’s all about the future
Contactless
A space in which a new generation move
Transactional
The model of a brave new world
Phone app ordering
Because this is what some people want
Safe
Easy
Quick
Convenient
Just because it’s not for me
Doesn’t make it wrong and
Judging by the queue at the door
They’re obviously doing something right.
I leave as another delivery
Heads out the door.
Boilersuit boy is making his way down the High Street
Back to college.
I’m sure he’ll be back tomorrow
Grateful for the help with his order.
Nationwide
Millions of members strong
Building society
Nationwide
Staffordshire
Portman
Nationwide
Since ’67 in Dudley town
Nearly sixty years serving a community
People love a building society don’t they
Not quite a bank
More like a club
They come clutching blue passports
A steady trickle
Popping in to do their financials
There’s bunting over the office door
Radio through the speakers
Comfy chairs to rest awhile
Friendly
Homely
Familiar
Certificates recognise commitment
From one to thirty years
Ashleigh, Sarah, Isla
Lisa, Samantha
Displayed on shelves alongside photographs
Pride of place
The buzzer brings a rush for the door
Scurrying footsteps on laminate floor
Jangle of keys on a lanyard
Always a thank you and a kind welcome
As chat starts up
About Covid
Hearing aids
Lost keys
Shopping up the town
Holidays
Pulled back muscles
Schools going back
Family
The drive to Cornwall
The cash machine whirs in the background
Dispensing spendies for the Full Moon next door
As an old couple
In matching purple fleeces
Shuffle up to the counter together
I look at the Community Board
Wonder if my wife is up for knitting
Bonnets and booties
For Russells Hall
Or if I know a charity that
Might benefit from the community fund
Or if I have some spare tins
For the food bank
There’s a lot going on
A lot to support
I see stability
Even though the future of the High Street
Is hard to call
Not sure where it’s going
Without investment in the shops
Which they watch come and go
Having looked out the window for six decades
Seen it all
In all its glory
This place is about people
Conversation
Continuity
Permanence
In a world that’s shifting fast
Leaving some behind
Who come here
To remember what helpful feels like
Connection
Belonging
Inclusion
The couple are at the door now
Saying their goodbyes
See you next week
Take care of yourselves
Tarabit
As they link arms and
Waltz out into the sunshine
Provision
I invite you to stand in my shoes
In the space between dark and light
To imagine a room laid bare
Where you sleep in the bath
In the clothes you wear every day
Because you don’t have a bed or
Even a mattress on the floor
To rest your tired frame.
You are in crisis
Slipped through the cracks It doesn’t matter how or why Just that you are here
Needing help
Needing compassion
Practical support
To get back on your feet
To feel cared for
Provided for
Prayers answered.
I sit here listening to Blur
On the CD player I have just bought from Provision House
A beacon-topped Aladdin’s cave of treasures
That occupies a space right opposite
It’s higher calling
Old Co-op
Old shoe shop
New lease of life
For this art-deco giant
Three floors of stepping back in time
Down history rich stairs
Through formica inlaid doors
Its belly stuffed with
Furniture and bedding
Tables and lamps
Wardrobes and kitchenware
The things that we take for granted
Destined for those that have nothing
Absolutely nothing
A lifeline.
In the shop I can still buy a pair of shoes
Anything an old department store may well have stocked
Ironic I feel.
They save the sleeping bags
To hand to homeless folk
Health-packs and new socks
Whatever helps.
The Food Club caters for those
That need to feed themselves
Their families
On budgets stretched to breaking
They mind the gap that governments should fill
By remembering that everybody counts Black Country rules.
Kim chats to a woman
Buying sticker-books for her granddaughter
Laughter slips through this conversation
Two books for a pound and you know
The girl will have a fun filled afternoon.
I ask about the future
Plans for expansion
Rooms to hire
Office space
Training programmes on their way
Perhaps a life for the room upstairs and I see progress
New from old
Right from wrong.
So, step through this door and lend a hand
To those that need it more than
You and I will ever understand.
We feel that our local High Streets should be the focal point for our local community. They should be seen as places of interest and a place where you can go for both essential items and leisure. Therefore, we feel making the High Street pedestrianised would mean that there is a larger space to work with on the High Street and that it will not only allow locals to shop but also congregate and relax with family and friends.