Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Farmadelphia | http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Margaret & Steven Eisenhauer" <eisenhauerdesign@earthlink.net>
  • To: "'permaculture'" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Farmadelphia | http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/
  • Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 18:48:12 -0500

Great news that one of the "first contact" sites is heading for remediation.
An even greater challenge would be to prevent the further destruction of the
"Great Valley" that is being eaten by suburban development as white flight
exits the city. This area was a bread basket for the northern cities with
outrageous fertility, plentiful water and a moderate climate - very close to
the entire eastern seaboard. That this beautiful landscape to the west of
Philamurderdelphia is being turned into strip malls and the most wasteful
sort of housing is an historic tragedy.

Wow America - Rock on?

Eisenhauerdesign@earthlink.com

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lawrence F.
London, Jr.
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 4:17 PM
To: permaculture
Subject: [permaculture] Farmadelphia | http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/


FARMADELPHIA

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/
Farmadelphia

[Image: Front Studio. "Sunflowers aid in the bio-cleansing of land in
preparation for crop farming"].

Last month, Front Studio architects gave a talk at the University of
Pennsylvania Department of City & Regional
Planning. There they outlined "Farmadelphia," their now widely known
proposal for the transformation of Philadelphia, in
which that city's vacant and abandoned lots are turned into a thriving
agricultural zone - complete with crops grown for
local consumption and soil remediation, and with an eye toward future
tourism, including surreal petting zoos, hay
rides, and even corn mazes.

[Image: Front Studio].

Philadelphia would become "an 'edible landscape'," we read, "with vast crop
fields, and free roaming farm animals."

[Images: Front Studio. "Free roaming city cows graze on locally owned
pasture" (top); chickens hang out amidst lettuce
(bottom)].

The project would also address - or is intended to address - "the
rehabilitation of the existing city fabric by
proposing ideas for vacant buildings that would allow the present-day
character to remain while creating new uses."

[Images: Front Studio].

From the project description:

For example, an abandoned building could have its walls and ground
lined with a non-permeable membrane to prevent
soil contamination for new plantings. Then layers of a weed barrier, soil
bed, loam and mulch are added on top. The
nurseries would provide: year-round job opportunities, high profit yields
from selling flowers and the adaptive reuse of
abandoned buildings.

Whole sections of the city would thus be deliberately cultivated. Or, from a
slightly different perspective, it's the
controlled re-wilding of the city.

[Image: Front Studio. Philadelphia's "urban voids interwoven with
agricultural patchwork"].

This urban re-wilding would also include "the rehabilitation of abandoned
buildings into stables to house animals."

[Images: Front Studio].

"Looking into Philadelphia's past," Front Studio writes, one finds "a green
legacy dating back to William Penn's
pastoral vision of a 'green countrie towne'."
But what about Philadelphia's green future - not its past or some distant
legacy it's passively inherited?
How might Philadelphia actively re-green itself for the future?
Some appropriate crops for the proposed agricultural stabilization of the
city might include the following, the
architects suggest:

-start with low maintenance, easy to grow, and profiting crops;
consider perennial crops such as asparagus,
shallots, garlic and herb varieties
-other crops include shade tolerant, easy to grow kale, sweet
potatoes, lettuce
-other crops that do well in Philadelphia climate: collard greens,
broccoli, mustard greens, corn, raspberry bushes

Those plants, in particular, would form a biosystem that could help push the
city onto a seven year agricultural plan -
after which this newly implanted ecosystem would level off, forming
something like a cultivated permaculture.

[Images: Front Studio's seven year plan for agricultural stabilization].

More about the project can be found on Front Studio's own website (under
"Work" and then "Competition").
See also Roof-farming southeast London, earlier on BLDGBLOG, as well as
Going Agro.

(And don't miss Sarah Rich's write-up of the project, nearly 2 years ago,
over on Inhabitat).

by Geoff Manaugh . Permalink . Back to homepage 19 comment(s)

_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subscribe or unsubscribe here:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
Google command to search archives:
site:https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture searchstring







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page