Buenos Aires, Argentina
2022
@wf_arc
This project deals with the topic of a reuse of abandoned silos in Buenos Aires. Food as a right to the community – Providing healthy, nutritious food for all, regardless of income, is the defined goal of this design. An edible ecosystem is presented to explore alternatives to conventional agriculture, sequester carbon, enhance biodiversity and yield a hundred varieties of foods.
This project aims to restore an ecosystem in the urban environment of Puerto Madero, including algae culture, beekeeping, insect farming, aquaponics, and various greenhouse and outdoor crops. The vertical food forest represents a comprehensive commitment to sustainability, education, and local economic participation.
Adaptive reuse is to be understood not as an act of overwriting, but as an attempt to add another chapter to the continuous history of a building. With the aim of recognizing and further emphasizing the unique characteristics, the history and the spirit of the host, a precise series of interventions should be proposed as a concept of change.
A market hall on the ground floor of the Silos in the area of puerto madero, where the ethically produced food is processed, cooked, served, and sold is the main programmatic interface, bringing together all actors, producers and consumers.
Further, the building houses educational spaces where workshops, seminars and lectures are offered to promote self-growing to the interested public. The program is enriched with a didactic garden within the floating park, which is open to the public.
On the top floors of the silos the areas for bio-intensive cultivation are located. The dynamic space design of the greenhouses allows for maximum utilization of glass house. The containers are irrigated via aquaponics. Natural ventilation counteracts overheating.
The facility also houses a 500 square meter food lab where seed germination can be experimented. By closing the gap between farm and fork, sustainable urban agriculture has the potential to revitalize entire communities by providing people with honest jobs and prospects for the future.
