Amidst growing concerns for diminishing levels of arable land in Chicago, Studio Gang, an innovative team of architects have come up with a model they hope will change residents access to nutritious local foods. While trendy locavore lifestyles take root and concerns about increasing access to locally grown produce increase, there remains the fact that most large cities still rely heavily on their hinterlands for nutritional support – meaning that feeding dense cities often requires transporting food from farms many miles away. Studio Gangs project, debuted in 2005 at the Visionary Architecture Chicago Exhibit, would transform the downtown Ohio highway feeder ramp into a farm to feed local populations. Called FEEDER, the project is designed to cover the currently underutilized and empty highway space with large urban gardens and greenhouses. The spaces would be open for public use allowing residents to grow their own produce, or enjoy the open green space.
The architects at studio gang highlight the fact that the project “offers a useful and productive gateway architecture that reinvigorates Chicago as an urban habitat” and “magnifies and exposes the important aspect of food production as a necessity for urban living."
In Chicago, and many other large cities, a lack of arable land within the city’s urban boundary, combined with the growth of the urban and surrounding suburban areas, means that food must be transported over further over longer distances in order to reach residents. Using traditional farming methods it takes an average of 12.5 acres of land to meet the nutritional needs of one person for a year. In contrast, producing in greenhouses and hothouses can sustain and feed 36 times the amount of people on the same amount of land. If fully optimized, Feeder’s pyramid like greenhouses could potentially produce enough food to increase local food security and supply local markets and restaurants in the area. Because of its central location the distance from food to fork would be minimized, along with the carbon footprint of the foods; buyers would travel a much shorter distance, perhaps by foot, to harvest their fruits and vegetables.
The farm would further serve, not only to filter pollution from the highway air, but also as an educational tool for the general public and students, fostering a renewed understanding of the food system and a stronger connection to the production of food.
This project was originally published/ exhibited at Visionary Chicago Architecture, 2005. Read more about the project here.
To listen to Studio Gangs founder, Jeanne Gang, talk about her work, click here.
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