Feeding the Future City family event

On Saturday 23 May the Architecture Centre held a fun and creative drop-in workshop where families were asked to ponder how cities of the future will feed themselves, as part of the Architecture Centre’s City Ideas Studio food season. Models of possible designs for a future city were built; demonstrating various ways cities of the future could feed themselves sustainably, using buildings and spaces to maximise the amount of food it grows. This is important because as the population of the world increases and more people in cities (some in Megacities of 10 million+ people), transport and space will be limited and expensive, we will need to grow more food and more in our cities to decrease transport costs.

Families were asked to think of ways we can utilise any public space to grow food locally, growing food on and in houses/flats, urban food farms and reducing food waste, transport and energy costs. The models were added to our future model city and there were many innovative and creative ideas including:

• Bananas grown from lampposts
• Vertical farming in the form of a ‘tower of carrots’
• Open top buses that will grow food on the roof
• A ferry that transports and grows plums, utilising water space

Families who took part were given edible seedlings to take home and grow into tasty beans. Children that were inspired by the drop-in workshop were encouraged to enter the Architecture Centre’s My Green City Design Challenge for schools. #mygreencity

You can download a copy of the Feeding the Future City Family Activity here and the Image Montage sheet here.

This event was part of the Architecture Centre’s My Green City 2015 Learning and Participation programme and took place during our City Ideas Studio food residency.

Your Green Future event at University of the West of England

On the 19 and 20 May the Architecture Centre took the City Ideas Studio food theme on tour - taking part in the Your Green Future 2015 event held at the University of the West of England. Over 300 secondary school students signed up to work alongside over 40 businesses in a range of interactive workshops. Your Green Future recognises that a low carbon economy and new environmental technologies are key growth sectors for the region. The event aimed to actively engage young people in thinking about an environmentally friendly and sustainable future city.

The Architecture Centre’s workshop Your Green City focused on the theme of food, asking the big question ‘How will cities feed themselves in the future?’ We asked the students to think about how our cities will need to be designed differently as the population of the world increases and most people will be living in cities (many in Megacities of 10 million+ people). Space and land will be limited and expensive, costs of transporting food will increase, it is time to think about how we can utilise any space we can find to grow our food more locally, helping to meet the predicted 70% increase in global food production in a sustainable and creative way.

Groups of 35-40 students were split into teams of 6/7. Architects from White Design, Noma Architects, Buro Happold, Askew Architects and Skanska as well as two current UWE Architecture and Planning students worked with the student teams as mentors. The groups were asked to take on the role of architect, landscape architect or master planner and develop 2D and 3D design ideas for a future city, thinking about how public spaces could be used to grow food, (eg. roundabouts, graveyards, roadside verges). Students could also think about designing vertical farms, indoor growing spaces on a domestic and industrial scale and altering buildings so they can grow as much food as possible (using wall and roof spaces).

After a kickstarter presentation the students had to develop their own designs, first drawing 2D plans and then constructing 3D models. At the end of each workshop students shared their ideas with the rest of the group, highlighting the key design solutions to the challenge ‘how will cities feed themselves in the future’. With the support of their professional mentors, the students came up with some innovative ideas, including:

• A tiered cake-stand inspired tall building for growing vegetables (with light loving plants such tomatoes/strawberries grown nearest the top)
• Turning  disused  mines into underground mushroom farms
• Boat farms to utilise space on water which could also transport food to where it was needed whilst growing it
• Using wind turbines to create energy to pump rainwater around buildings to water food crops growing on walls and roofs 

Students and teachers who were inspired by the workshop were encouraged to:

• enter the Architecture Centre’s My Green City Design Challenge for Schools
• attend the Architecture Centre’s free Feeding the Future City Family event

#YourGreenFuture   #mygreencity

City Ideas Studio: Food - the private view

Want to see what makes Bristol a green capital, bursting with eco ideas? Hundreds of interested people who came along to the launch of the City Ideas Studio earlier this month did too. Exploring food solutions for a sustainable future, the Food exhibition is on until 5 July.

Special thanks to catering partner, Source Food Hall & Cafe.

Thanks to Frances Gard for the photography.