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The Concrete Orchard - Copra Production Facility

Part 1 Project 2011
Jakob Szikora
Sheffield Hallam University | UK
The Concrete Orchard project was centred around the idea of growing food in an urban context.

The design looked at the feasibility of growing a highly imported resource, using the extreme case of coconuts, to explore whether it would be environmentally, economically and socially viable to grow a product that required a specific climate to produce.

As a side note, the project also investigated the current use of the coconut tree with a focus on its by-products, namely coir, which is found in the coconut husks. The design focussed on the uses of coir as a substitute for compost and how this would improve the quality of the UK Peatbogs and other unsustainable sources of compost.

Strategies for the Design included:

An elevated growing platform with an ETFE roof to maximise solar gain and maintain the appropriate climatic conditions

A ground source heat pump and a bio digestion tank to provide heat and energy required to power the workshops, kitchens and growing facilities.

A market stall at street level to improve the public realm and encourage the idea of growing food locally.

A long term plan for how the building would impact the immediate context and how the facility would use the coir to improve local growing allotments.


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2011
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