Agricultural garden
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
A project of an urban farm, consisting of a public park (planted with vegetables, fruits and flowers) and a complex of buildings (combining agral, recreational and educational functions), the heart of which is the high-rise building of the "Orangery" containing all-year-round vertical gardens for public, semi-private use and private.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
The project presents the concept of an "agricultural garden" - an urban farm consisting of a public park (planted with vegetables, fruit and flowers) and a complex of buildings (combining agricultural, recreational and educational functions). The heart of the garden is the high-rise building of the "Orangery" housing all-year-round vertical gardens for public, semi-private and private use. It is surrounded by a complex of three museum and production buildings: a pavilion with hydroponic crops - "Plantarium", a pavilion with aquaponic crops - "Aquarium" and a pavilion devoted to the role of pollinators in nature - "Pollinarium".
The aim of the project is to restore nature to the city, improve the quality of life of its inhabitants, increase the level of self-sufficiency of the city (in terms of basic food products) and promote pro-ecological attitudes in society. The project undertakes the challenge of combining the spirit of futurism with the aesthetics of a historical architectural style (classicism). A special structure of the park is created, ensuring accessibility and equal opportunities to the people using it.
The concept is presented in the context of the Poznań green wedge, in the place of the former football stadium. The form, the modularity of the urban and constructional network, and the universality of the functions, referring to the common European history, ensure that the concept can be replicated and adapted in various European contexts. The functional mix (recreation, production and education) is to make the park attractive, increasing the chance of its implementation.
Key objectives for sustainability
The growing share of the middle class in society is a positive phenomenon, however, it brings with it numerous problems related to the emigration of city dwellers to suburban areas. Such urban sprawl leads to the deprivation of more and more biologically active space from nature and an increased emission of pollutants due to the prolonged transport of inhabitants from / to the city. Frequent motivation to move out of the city is the desire to rest from noise, get some fresh air or have your own patch of greenery. The aim of the project was to create a recreational place that would be able to meet all these needs (help people return to nature) and which could be located in different parts of the city, ensuring easy access to all residents. Such a new form of recreation would keep the city's wealthier society, thus avoiding a negative impact on the environment.
Apart from the recreational function, the project of the agricultural park was also supposed to have production functions. Providing residents with the opportunity to grow their own food (vegetables and fruit) would contribute to shortening the logistics chain, which generates a significant percentage of all emissions from transport. As a result, cities could become completely independent in terms of basic food products in the future. Moreover, basing a large part of the production on modern soilless systems (hydroponics / aquaponics) would reduce water consumption in the agricultural sector.
The third goal of the project was to provide residents with impressions influencing their knowledge of sustainable food production, the high importance of biodiversity, or behavioral patterns that could make cities greener. Knowledge that residents (and tourists) would acquire would encourage them to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The idea shaping the aesthetic style of the park was a combination of two contrasting architectural styles - classicism symbolizing the past and futurism opposing it. The classicist part results from the reference to the historical orangeries fashionable in Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries. They constitute a valuable cultural heritage of the old continent, which deserves to be revived in a new, refreshed form. A futuristic part of it was supposed to give it a modern character, which manifested the perspective of the concept (saving the planet and the city from degradation). In such a combination, the harmony and static nature of classicist modules is combined into an expressive system full of linear guides.
The location of the buildings within green belts required that the tall buildings visible in the city skyline did not contrast with the vegetation scattered around the area. The high-rise building of the Orangery, which is part of the complex, has a green facade made of lush plants. It has also been enriched with a system of colored panels giving it an urban character. Their orange color was chosen so that the building could be easily and intuitively identified from a distance by tourists not aware of the terrain.
Key objectives for inclusion
The project of the park was supposed to be addressed to representatives of all social classes. This required designing such a structure that would offer a full package of basic functions, available to everyone, with the possibility of extending it with additional aspects, in case of greater needs of given units. As a result, the park was divided into three zones. The first, the most extensive, was to offer a public orangery for passive recreation, educational facilities loosely located in the park and open-air gardens (traditional vegetable gardens, aquaponic gardens, flower gardens and fruit orchards) for active recreation, supplemented with integration squares and small architecture (in the form of local art). The zone would be the common good of the local community, which would care for and develop it. The second zone was to contain a hydroponic farm, made up of two-story shelves with plants grouped in one common room. The zone would offer the possibility of renting a given number of shelves for plants for individual cultivation, in the company of other residents. Both zones could also be a place for educational workshops and tourist trips (promoting the model of the farm to other cities and countries). The third zone would allow residents to rent their own "garden module" - a private conservatory, decorated according to individual taste, which could be a place to calm down with the company of flowering plants and other decorations. The modules would be grouped into overlapping floors, thus creating a real vertical farm. Each floor, apart from the garden modules, would contain a co-living space in the form of a living room and a kitchen with a dining room.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
To create a place that could be an escape from the dense downtown buildings, the Poznań green system was used, the main elements of which are four green wedges piercing into the city. Potential locations within the wedges were identified, where an exemplary agricultural park could be created. After the analyzes, a location was selected for the first, exemplary park in the vicinity of the city center, on the site of the former football stadium. A good reception of the park by the residents could motivate the city managers to locate more such farms in other available locations, leading to the agroculturization of green belts. This would give a new interpretation and freshness to the wedges of green, which since the time of its repetition have been the city's green buffer, intended for active recreation. Green belts ventilating the city are an element of many European cities and the presented idea could be an example for them.
The designed park consists of a public garden (planted with vegetables, fruit and flowers) and a complex of buildings (combining agricultural, recreational and educational functions). The heart of the park is the high-rise building of the "Orangery" housing all-year-round vertical gardens for public, semi-private and private use. It is surrounded by a complex of three museum and production buildings: a pavilion with hydroponic crops - "Plantarium", a pavilion with aquaponic crops - "Aquarium" and a pavilion devoted to the role of pollinators in nature - "Beekeeping". Such a contemporary interpretation of the palace gardens, accessible not only to a narrow group of elites, but open to all residents, may become a new attractive space on the city map, in line with the style of the New European Bauhaus. Modern aesthetics referring to classicist conservatories gives the garden a harmonious and original expression while maintaining the ecology and economy of construction. All three dimensions form a coherent whole.
