Food production and density: the design of a high-rise housing development in Singapore

The issue of food security is shifting from the periphery of the urban design/architectural discourse into the centre. The growing impetuous to recognize the disproportional rate at which population groeth is occurring (both globally and in urban areas) and rate of food production remaining stable h...

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Main Authors: Bay, Joo, Wee, O.
Format: Book Chapter
Published: Earthscan from Routledge 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67838
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author Bay, Joo
Wee, O.
author_facet Bay, Joo
Wee, O.
author_sort Bay, Joo
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The issue of food security is shifting from the periphery of the urban design/architectural discourse into the centre. The growing impetuous to recognize the disproportional rate at which population groeth is occurring (both globally and in urban areas) and rate of food production remaining stable has entered the realm of urban design and architecture. Cities such as Singapore reveal an almost non-existent arable land supply, and are, consequently, heavily dependent on food imports. Singapore’s continued rapid urbanization has resulted in an increasingly dense city; however, a response to the correlation between density and food security is unresolved. How can such cities address the oxymoronic challenge presented – to secure sustainable future food supply whilst maintaining urbanization? Can the paradoxical spatial qualities of agricultural food production and the density of housing coalesce t produce a new architectural typology of food security and urban housing? Surbana Jurong Consultants of Singapore’s theoretical framework for the R4 Apartments and Food Production Tower projects seels to explore this paradigm. Here the R4 Apartments attempt to integrate multi-tiered small-scale food production into apartment living technologies and the Food Tower attempts to envisage a seminal large-scale response to food production only. Whilst this is not the conclusive solution to the rojected 2050 food security crisis, this can contribute to the greater collective solution required to address similar problems in the discourse of stainable food security occurring within the density of urbanity.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-678382019-09-10T06:25:41Z Food production and density: the design of a high-rise housing development in Singapore Bay, Joo Wee, O. The issue of food security is shifting from the periphery of the urban design/architectural discourse into the centre. The growing impetuous to recognize the disproportional rate at which population groeth is occurring (both globally and in urban areas) and rate of food production remaining stable has entered the realm of urban design and architecture. Cities such as Singapore reveal an almost non-existent arable land supply, and are, consequently, heavily dependent on food imports. Singapore’s continued rapid urbanization has resulted in an increasingly dense city; however, a response to the correlation between density and food security is unresolved. How can such cities address the oxymoronic challenge presented – to secure sustainable future food supply whilst maintaining urbanization? Can the paradoxical spatial qualities of agricultural food production and the density of housing coalesce t produce a new architectural typology of food security and urban housing? Surbana Jurong Consultants of Singapore’s theoretical framework for the R4 Apartments and Food Production Tower projects seels to explore this paradigm. Here the R4 Apartments attempt to integrate multi-tiered small-scale food production into apartment living technologies and the Food Tower attempts to envisage a seminal large-scale response to food production only. Whilst this is not the conclusive solution to the rojected 2050 food security crisis, this can contribute to the greater collective solution required to address similar problems in the discourse of stainable food security occurring within the density of urbanity. 2017 Book Chapter http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67838 Earthscan from Routledge restricted
spellingShingle Bay, Joo
Wee, O.
Food production and density: the design of a high-rise housing development in Singapore
title Food production and density: the design of a high-rise housing development in Singapore
title_full Food production and density: the design of a high-rise housing development in Singapore
title_fullStr Food production and density: the design of a high-rise housing development in Singapore
title_full_unstemmed Food production and density: the design of a high-rise housing development in Singapore
title_short Food production and density: the design of a high-rise housing development in Singapore
title_sort food production and density: the design of a high-rise housing development in singapore
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67838