Fixed Programme

Stretford Future Living Centre

As illustrated in the previous precedents, food is a commonality amongst all people, everyone has an interest in it on some level so this will be the core focus of my project. In addition to the local issues I want to address, taking forward my design intention and personal manifesto: The building must address it’s environmental context, sensitively and effectively.

With this project however I want to take this a step further, creating a space which is an all encompassing template for low carbon living; illustrating how people can live within their own means even in the context of a city.

In order to do this the project will need four key spaces:

A Working Community Garden - Allowing residents to grow food, for cheaper sustainable living

A Restaurant - preparing food grown on site by residents and surplussed by local farms

A small dwelling - Showing how sustainable strategies can influence a living space as well as providing accommodation for visiting lecturers

An education space - To allow knowledge transfer and facilitate the education of people on the workings of the space - lecture theatre.

Conclusion

The building will be a community run co-operative. Anyone will be able to enter and experience the space and attend the restaurant. However members of the community who become members, contributing either financially or helping to grow the fruits and vegetables will receive a discount in the restaurant as well as have the ability to grow fruits and vegetables for personal use.

Diet And The Environment

As the projects focuses around food and the environment. It is important to analyse how these two concepts interact. And on a base levels the impact diet has on greenhouse gas emissions. The portion of the modern western diet which has the greatest impact on this, is without a doubt, livestock and the consumption of animals and animal products.

Farmed livestock are responsible for 14.5% of all manmade greenhouse gas emissions

If we all stopped consuming animals now, by 2050 food related emissions would be reduced by 70% with economic benefits equivalent to $570 billion [unrelated to the environment but also would be a predicted reduction in the cost of healthcare, unpaid informal care and lost working days by $700-1,000 billion]

It’s estimated that the diet of a meat eater versus a vegetarian uses 17x more land (68% of total agricultural land is used for livestock), 14x more water and 10x more energy

With the global population growing at an alarming rate so is the need for these people to be fed in a way with minimal environmental impact, sustainably. We could eliminate world hunger with 40 tonnes of food a year. 760 tonnes of food is fed to animals on farms every year

[Please click images for sources]