M.Arch Design Studio III: Systems
Parsons School of Design
Instructors: Joel Towers, Evan Shieh
A NUTRITIONAL HUB FOR RED HOOK
This project takes place in Red Hook, Brooklyn, an isolated neighborhood under direct threat from sea level rise and coastal storm surges. The task was to come up with an inventive and adaptive reuse strategy for a defunct grain elevator, the Red Hook Grain Terminal. The grain terminal stands 120 feet tall, with a footprint of about 400’ by 60’. It is comprised of 54 concrete grain silos, each with a diameter of 18’ and a height of 90’. There are only two floors, the first floor below the silos, and the top, which is above the silos.
The majority of the neighborhood’s residents live in the NYCHA complex The Red Hook Houses. The 6,000+ residents of the Red Hook Houses face health inequalities, including high rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. 18% of Red Hook House residents have diabetes, compared to NYC’s average of 11%. After mapping Red Hook, I noticed that the NYCHA buildings lacked sufficient access to affordable and nutritious food. The only affordable food options in the vicinity are fast-food chains.
As the community continues to witness the development of luxury condos, expensive restaurants are popping up to cater to gentrifiers. Most Red Hook residents cannot afford to eat in their neighborhood, and the little they can afford is having negative impacts on their health. Existing community gardens are widely popular but cannot keep up with demand. The community farms were also destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, and have since been rebuilt.
My proposal is to turn the abandoned grain terminal, and the tallest building in Red Hook, into a hydroponic farm to provide fresh, affordable, and nutritional produce to the community, which exists within a food desert.
Eight cross-laminated timber floors would be added every 10’ to allow for a human-scaled indoor farm. Two-thirds of the terminal would be dedicated to a community hydroponic farm and the remainder would house educational and nutrition-focused programming. A strategically landscaped site will protect neighboring sports fields from future flooding.
Red Hook Pound Exchange
A proposed currency exchange based off of fresh produce. This currency has a nutritional standard, not a gold one, promoting community engagement. Each Red Hook House Resident starts the year with the poundage (180lbs) of the annual recommended intake of vegetables. The Grain Terminal will produce enough vegetables to meet this need. Residents are invited to the silos to gather the vegeteables they need for the week and will explore a space catered to community and nutriontional development. A grocery store will fulfill all meal-preparation needs. Cooking classes will inform participants on how to best integrate the hydroponic-grown veggies into everyday meals. Residents can earn more currency by volunteering at one of the community farms or by participating in the compost program.
A grocery store within the terminal.
A strategically landscaped site will buffer the neighborhood from future flooding. This floodable park will house walking trails and a community compost site. Within a couple blocks, residents can go from watching a soccer game to a relaxing walk along the water, to picking up healthy ingredients for dinner.
Hydroponic growing trays line the interior walls of a cylindrical grain silo
Partial Plan
At the center of every 9 silo block will be an open staircase providing vertical circulation throughout the terminal