This is the detailed plan for The Green Factory Nijmegen. For this I chose for the area in the South. In the Masterplan this is referred to as The Restaurant. For my design I had something different in mind.

Identity of the area

Road to the area

Industrial map

Uniqueness

The Identity map and and Industrial map both show that there is a lot of industry on the West-side. This industrial terrain contains; metal companies, garbage disposals, car repair shops. The purple splotch in the North is now a closed coal power plant. On the Uniqueness map you can see that there are a few parks and recreation sites nearby, so that means that the site has to compete with them.

Concept Growth and multiplication

The concept is to spread the idea of sustainable food-production in a social setting. The setting will like in the painting School of Athens. A place where people come and share ideas, but instead of the ideas being metaphysical it will be more like in the Islamic Golden age. In this age the ideas were more specific, like the discovery of the Arabic numerals, Alcohol, Algebra and naming 2/3 of the stars that we see at night.

At the Foodllab people can experiment with different ways of food-production, whereby mechanization and doing more with less is key. When children have a garden look after they score 15 points higher in the subjects math, engineering and science (As explained by Kimbal Musk).

When The Foodlab gets well known, it has the potential to grow further into the city. An important factor is that there will be no export, unless the area around the Foodlab has an abundance of food. The industrial terrain in the East will undergo change in the next 10-15 years. A lot of car repair shops will disappear, since car companies are going to shift their focus to cars without ownership. It will result in less repair shops, quicker repairs (due to smarter design) and less cars. These places that open up will gave space for the Foodlab to expand. When the City eventually becomes self-sustaining it can export their abundance to other cities to even expand even more. This will have to be through the ways of Corporate Social Responsibility.

This design fuses the idea of Jane Jacobs that cities became big because they exported more than they imported, and the idea of A. Naqvi that cities not countries, are the key to tomorrows economies.

Aquaponics examples

Aquaponics is a great way to grow food sustainable, the right one is my own system. The growth is 4 weeks.

Masterplan 1:1000

Design 1:500

The Voronoi Diagram is used for this design. I was looking for a way to make the appearance of the Foodlab a surprise. The solution for this is was on the terrain all along. I had a lot of soil left when excavating for the parking-lots and (bicycle-)paths. I placed this in front of the Foodlab to create even more of a surprise. For the building I used the same voronoi diagram with the help of Voronax. It creates the optimal geometry between points trough the same proces as bubbles when they are forming.

Sideview Voronoi Forest

Cross section Voronoi Forest – Foodlab

Planting stamp Voronoi (Food-)forest

Visual Foodlab

Visual Voronoi Forest