Micro-Farming in Urban Housing

• Main Authors: Hsiao-Wei Cheng, 鄭筱微
• Other Authors: Ih-Cheng Lai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40651689812742781423

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 建築學系碩士班 === 102 === As more people have been increasingly moving to cities , food problems in such cities are bound to have an environmental impact. Cities entirely rely on suburban or rural areas as their food producers and providers. With the expanding boundaries of the cities and the concomitant increase in the distances of food delivery, transportation, packaging and refrigerating, and household refrigeration facilities—all the costs that seem like a matter of course—are the costs that we must pay. However, the new development of agricultural technology, such as hydroponics and aquaponic systems,” brings forth a new opportunity to lead agriculture into the vertical urban space. In the 1960s, due to urban development after World War II, Taiwan built up a large number of collective housing, i.e., walk-up apartments. Now these 40- or 50-year-old apartments are considered aged and in need of renewal. While the most usual way to renew an old building is to simply tear it down and construct a new high-rise building at the original site, this approach of renewal would cause a loss in the alley culture and urban imagery that are unique to Taiwan. Therefore, by reconsidering the concrete jungle where we live, the study provides a picture of creating a new urban landscape with a balance between production and residence by integrating mini-farms into vertical living spaces. On the basis of literature review and case studies, first, how urban and vertical farms are integrated into the building system and used to improve the living environment and spatial aura is investigated. Moreover, a lifestyle symbiotic with nature, which can be constructed by simultaneously practicing the agricultural technologies of both soil tillage (permaculture) and aquaponic system, is proposed. The excrement of fish can be used as nutrition for plants; a practice that integrates the aquaponic system and the buildings’ water systems, thus making a new spatial pattern of coexisting water (blue) and plants (green) possible. In this scenario, the mode of living unit becomes developed into a group living space, which creates a residential prototype of coexisting production and living in an urban city. As to the location, finally, Wanhua District, the birthplace of the oldest streets in Taipei City, is chosen as the basis for the design and actual practice of the above-proposed plan. As found in the research, integrating the aquaponic system into old buildings can not only provide food but also achieve an effect of mood healing through savoring the natural view of water and plants. As the structures of old buildings and the system of water and green plants interweave with each other, the region that already faced decline now regains a new opportunity of vitality and change. This research result, in other words, brings forth an expectation that the old city landscape and alley culture can be preserved at the same time, while maintaining a balance between the developments of the eastern and western districts of Taipei City.