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Laboratory of Productive Ecologies

Part 2 Project 2020
Oliver Haigh
Leeds Beckett University | UK
Our heavy reliance on industrialised agriculture is a significant contributor to the climate emergency, with every calorie of food eaten in the West taking an average of ten calories of fossil fuels to produce. This supply method also creates a distinct disconnect between food-grower and food-consumer.

The Laboratory of Productive Ecologies on Pomona Island, Manchester, proposes an alternate method of food-supply for its local populace, aiming to bolster the food security of an area in economic decline and bring together its diverse communities through the communal growing, sharing and eating of food.

Maximising the island’s productive capabilities whilst minimising environmental impact is also central to the construction methodology. Bamboo forests are grown and then cut into compressive vault forms to form an in-situ living falsework. A calico fabric formwork is stretched over this before a cement-free concrete is applied. Once cured, the bamboo is cut and fabric peeled away, with the resultant vaulted spaces retaining a permanent memory of both, in its surface texture and indentations. These are then appropriated by an array of food markets and eateries, sustainably provided for by crops grown around the site and on the new bio-diverse ecological membrane of the roofscape above.

Oliver Haigh

Tutor(s)

2020
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