Urban Metabolism: Food Waste, the Next Recycling Frontier Part 2 Project 2021 Yasmin Ben Ltaifa Columbia University | USA The factory is an urban metabolism that renews the site while also transforming organic food waste into innovative raw materials, thus creating a closed loop system. In addition to its productive, social, and educational aspects, this urban metabolism provides a rich natural habitat for the local ecology. The factory edges are a living shoreline and deep landscape serving as a mitigator between machine and the environment. The dense covering of the factory creates a threshold between the controlled and mechanized processes of the interior with the wildlife that activates the site. The planter beam structure of the roof folds down to shape the facade and armature of the factory. This facade is planted with mushrooms. The mushroom roots, mycelium, are used in factory processes, in combination with organic food waste, to manufacture biodegradables. One of the main focuses of the factory is the educational component. Its program falls in line with NYC Mayor DeBlasio’s initiative for food waste as the next recycling frontier. The invisible processes of transforming agro- waste into innovative raw materials are made visible for everyone to observe. This living remediation machine is a deep landscape that emerges from the soil and grows incrementally. It has many scales of impact, from the very local to the larger urban. Yasmin Ben Ltaifa Tutor(s) Mimi Hoang