The Ark: Continuous Productive Urban Landscape Market Part 2 Project 2011 Stavros Zachariades University of Bath | UK A proposal for a cooperative urban farm consisting of a productive landscape, marketplace and community mess hall.The Ark forms the flagship project, part of a larger masterplan proposal, for Bristol city’s North Eastern fringe condition. Stemming from considered contextural observation and understanding of Stapleton road’s struggling multicultural community, the project’s aim is to champion sustainable development. Bedded in a masterplan proposal, drawn up on the basis of “garden cities”, the Ark is an intensively used urban productive landscape consisting of a marketplace, community mess hall, food growing and packing facilities. Stapleton road high street, the project’s main focal point, is reinterpreted, rethinking the traditional high street typology within a sustainable framework wishing to minimise food miles. Considering critical regionaist ideas, the Ark seeks to enforce the multicultural identity for the residents of Stapleton road the majority of which are of Somali and Jamaican origin. The building form is generated so as to directly respond to the surrounding environmental impacts creating favourable productive environments within it. By making maximum use of harvested resources and drawing from the surrounding’s waste products for energy the Ark seeks to minimize its demand on the city’s resources.Tectonically the scheme questions how prefabrication and standardised elements can form a distinct regional language with a building form respective to the environment. The building is flexible, and adaptable and allows ease of assembly giving a versatility that enables members of the community to contribute to the project’s construction taking direct ownership of the project.The Ark’s name represents an inclusive symbol read in a multitude and diversity of stories, mythologies and religions. The project, similarly to the name, carries an open message of optimism and duty to protect our environment. Tutor(s)