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Uwais Dadabhai

Uwais Dadabhai

(FEW)Gotten Archi-Vention Loops

Rethinking Circular Innovation in Architecture to Ensure Consistent Solutions to a Food, Energy and Water Crisis.

Food, energy and water exist in an interdependent loop known as the Food-Energy-Water Nexus. This interrelationship means that they are dependent on each other and factors affecting any one of them would have an influence on the rest. Food insecurity is a persisting issue affecting many rural communities. However, a growing number of densely populated urban areas, are increasingly being exposed to soaring levels of food insecurity. Johannesburg as an important major city within Gauteng, exists as a highly densified urban context. High levels of food insecurity exist in the CBD together with high unemployment rates and low monthly incomes. Farms exist far out on the periphery of the city, away from consumers, thereby bringing food to the plate at increased costs. Therefore, the project tackles this by bringing the farm back to the city. Food insecurity is a public issue and hence requires public interventions. Hence, underutilized public land is best suited for solving food insecurity in a city whose land remains plagued by contentions. The site housing The Old Park Station structure in Braamfontein serves as an optimal site for this purpose. The ailing Braamfontein Railway Yards together with the unutilized and failing train carriages which it houses, serve as additional spaces for food production. This thesis, as a forgotten concept of architectural innovation within agricultural processes, serves to address food insecurity in a closed loop nexus. The design explores how various agricultural innovative techniques can be integrated into existing as well as new infrastructure. Aquaponics, hydroponics, vertical farming, greenhouses, traditional land farming, organic food markets as well as educational facilities are brought together to co-function. The introduction of high-tech, energy efficient agricultural systems, aims to limit untoward external factors, thereby ensuring a sustainable and viable source of food production to solve a food insecurity crisis.

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