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Scripting the Edible Landscape $(R1P71|\|9 7H3 3D1BL3 L4|\|D5(4P3
Andrew C. Chau | Advisor: Annie Lebel
April 1, 2008
The rail lands that slice through the city of Montreal are ready for development.
On these abandoned lands, I propose a network of agriculture nodes as a catalyst for reviving
depressed neighbourhoods and re‐organizing relationships between city and productive
landscape.
The farming network will be designed with a genetic algorithm. This allows for a series of
outcomes and creates a building that evolves over time. The intention is to produce hybrid
institutions, combining horticultural laboratory, experimental farmland, marketplace, and
demonstration center. This is a means for revitalizing a marginalized area. It is also a means for
dislodging embedded concepts of the constructed and the natural, provoking new spacial,
social, and programmatic possibilities.
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Introduction: Urban Agriculture
Warehouses and factories in Montreal have been abandoned because of a shrinking
manufacturing sector. Downtown land with accessible rail and infrastructure should have no
trouble attracting homeowners and stores, but these lands are only now developed (Figure 1).
One problem is a lack of services and supermarkets. This means residents do not have access
to fresh produce and meats.
Montreal's history of community gardens provides a model for redeveloping the city’s
industrial lands. During the 1970s, Portuguese and Italian immigrants grew food on vacant lots,
until the city stepped in to oversee these activities (Thom). Through city‐support, community
gardens in Montreal are stable financially and property‐wise. Today, urban agriculture is
understood as a means for sustenance, and as a way to develop social neighbourhoods. Today,
the city has a well‐established system for community gardening based on allotments, with
roughly 27 000 people involved in city gardens.
I propose to develop a network of hybrid institutions as farming hubs. These co‐operatives will
be owned by locals: shareholders with a vital stake in the community. They will be a place for
social interaction, buying and selling goods, agricultural research, experimental farming, and
community services. The co‐operatives take capitalism and turn it on its head. Instead of
funding those in the corporate boardroom, they will give back to residents of the city and
generate future development.
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Program: Hybrid Institution, Research‐Market‐Community
In the post‐war period, architects and planners believed social problems could be solved
through utopic buildings. These large, unwieldy structures had little to do with their
surroundings. We now know this does not work. Looking to nature, its complex systems are
developed through small units of change and hundreds of iterations. The cooperative will
develop by mimicking natural growth, beginning small and spreading over time.
In her book The Nature of Economies, Jane Jacobs describes the universal rules of development
that apply to natural growth, economies, and the development of cities.
Differentiation emerging from generality.
Differentiations become generalities from which further differentiations emerge.
Development depends on co‐developments. (Jacobs 2000)
The program is broken into smaller parts, which become the unit of generality. The building
can then expand or contract, duplicate, or be demolished, depending on the cooperative's
needs. As the program matures, produce stalls could be expanded with a dry goods section. On
another floor, a local doctor could trade his medical services for a haircut from the barber next
door, and the two could lunch on Greek food at a nearby food stand. Connections between
different functions and spaces are fostered and new combinations of program can be
developed.
Because the project will be developed as an evolution rather than a single design, the program
outlined below is but one out of many possible outcomes.
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Program Breakdown (m2)
Initial Program Expansion Growth Diversification
Agricultural Research Laboratories 150 150 200
Experimental Farmland (Doubles as park)
Enclosed (Greenhouses) ‐ 50 100
Open (Rooftop, Vacant Lots) 80 150 300
Experimental (aeroponic, hydroponic,
underground)
‐ ‐ 50
Organic Market
Dry Goods 0 200 400
Wet Goods (fruits, meats, vegetables) 250 400 600
Transportation
Freight (CN) 200 250 300
Passenger Rail (Trains de Banlieu) 200 250 300
Visitor / Outreach Centre 80 150 200
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Fitness Function (point‐based system)
Program Solar
Levels
Soil
Quality
Sound
Reqt.
Freight
Prox.
Road
Prox.
Metro
Prox.
Train
Prox.
Agriculture Research
Labs
Ethanols, GM Crops,
Medicine, Organic
Fertilizer / Pesticides,
Textiles
8 8 10 4 6 6 6
Experimental Farmland
Aeroponic,
Hydroponic,
Machined,
Underground
10 10 2 8 6 6 6
Freight Station 4 0 0 10 10 2 0
Organic Market 6 0 2 6 8 8 8
Passenger Rail Station 6 0 5 0 10 10 10
Visitor/Outreach Centre 6 6 8 2 8 8 8
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Site: The CPR Yard is Reborn
The Canadian Pacific Railway marshalling yard has a rich history in Montreal’s growth and
development. Built in 1891, its rail vocation has followed the ups and downs of the railway
industry since. In 1967, a 93 000 ft2 shed for loading and distributing cargo was built to serve
the needs of growing businesses. At the time, this was the most modern shed on CPR’s tran‐
shipping system. Although proposals for a new CHUM hospital and University of Montreal
expansion focused on the Outremont lands, there has been little recent activity.
Prefigured by images in post‐apocalyptic science fiction literature and movies, I propose to
insert this hybrid community onto the existing land, a sapling that begins small and germinates
to fully occupy this found space. The rail tracks crisscrossing the site offer the first organizing
lines from which the program can grow. Opportunities to brush up against history exist with
the surrounding warehouses and historic residences (Figure 2).
The hybrid institution acknowledges that development is not the one‐liner, Out with the old, in
with the new. Rather it is a web of interdependencies linking local community, modes of
production, and past history.
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Mode of Production: A Biologically Active Architecture
The development of the built form works in the same way as that of biological growth:
mistakes and adjustments are made, variations and permutations are attempted in an ongoing
evolution. The most effective way to allow for these changes is for a building to begin small
and to expand incrementally. This supposes that our current paradigm of mega‐structures:
office blocks, shopping arcades, and factories, is unsustainable and out of date.
I propose to study organic growth through plants. The vines (beans, morning glories, edible
flowers) will be raised within a matrix of strings, allowing them to climb and latch onto the
range of possible paths (Figure 3). Mapping these pathways will develop an understanding of
the natural processes of growth: where nodes form, paths branch off, how the death of one
part of the vine can mean rapid growth in another.
The data from this study, site surveys, and mathematical growth equations, will provide the
foundation to program a genetic algorithm. Expanding on the research at MIT’s Emergent
Design Studio and Columbia University’s Algorithmic Architecture Studio, algorithms will be
used to model building growth in four dimensions, including time.
This thesis presents a radical reconsideration of how a building operates, one that engages
natural processes and organic systems not as a stylistic appliqué but as a fundamental part of
the building’s functional logic.
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Genetic Algorithm (Site Planning)
1. Initialization
50 random configurations of the program are generated on the thesis site
2. Selection
50% of the configurations are selected to breed
Solutions are selected through a fitness‐based process, where fitter solutions (as measured by the fitness function) are typically more likely to be selected
The fitness function is stochastic (using the roulette wheel selection method) and designed so that a small proportion of less fit solutions are selected. This ensures a diverse population to prevent premature convergence on poor solutions.
3. Reproduction
A pair of parents is selected for each child
Each child is generated through genetic operators (crossover and 20% mutation)
4. Termination
The generational processes (steps 2 and 3) are repeated until a termination condition is reached
Termination conditions:
A solution is found that satisfies minimum criteria
Fixed number of generations reached
Allocated budget (computation time/money) reached
The highest ranking solution's fitness is reaching or has reached a plateau such that successive iterations no longer produce better results
Manual inspection
Combinations of the above
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Intialization Script (Maxscript)
j = 20 ‐‐ number of boxes created
animate on
( (
for i = 1 to j do ‐‐ creating the randomly placed boxes
(
at time 0
(
Box lengthsegs:1 widthsegs:1 heightsegs:1 length:25 width:25 height:25 mapcoords:on pos:[0,0,0] isSelected:on
for obj in $ do
(
randX = random ‐125.0 125.0
randY = random ‐75.0 75.0
$.pos = [randX,randY,0]
) ) ) )
boxes_at_load = $box* as array ‐‐ putting the boxes into an array
$box*.material = meditMaterials[1]
(
for i = 1 to (j ‐ 1) do ‐‐ first check of x y coordinate overlap
(
at time (i*15)
(
for k = 1 to (j‐i) do
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(
l = boxes_at_load[k].pos.x ‐ boxes_at_load[k].width/2 ‐‐ left x‐coordinate of 1st object
m = boxes_at_load[k].pos.x + boxes_at_load[k].width/2 ‐‐ right x‐coordinate of 1st object
n = boxes_at_load[k+i].pos.x ‐ boxes_at_load[k+i].width/2 ‐‐ left x‐coordinate of 2nd object
o = boxes_at_load[k+i].pos.x + boxes_at_load[k+i].width/2 ‐‐ right x‐coordinate of 2nd object
p = boxes_at_load[k].pos.y ‐ boxes_at_load[k].height/2 ‐‐ left y‐coordinate of 1st object
q = boxes_at_load[k].pos.y + boxes_at_load[k].height/2 ‐‐ right y‐coordinate of 1st object
r = boxes_at_load[k+i].pos.y ‐ boxes_at_load[k+i].height/2 ‐‐ left y‐coordinate of 2nd object
s = boxes_at_load[k+i].pos.y + boxes_at_load[k+i].height/2 ‐‐ right y‐coordinate of 2nd object
t = 1
(
if (((n <= l and l <= o) or (n <= m and m <= o)) and ((r <= p and p <= s) or (r <= q and q <= s))) then t = 0
if t == 0 then
for obj in boxes_at_load[k+i] do
(
randX = random ‐125.0 125.0
randY = random ‐75.0 75.0
boxes_at_load[k+i].pos = [randX,randY,0]
) ) ) ) ) ) )
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Conclusion: Lessons from the Past
Montreal has in the past refused to die. It has been consistently reinvented: as a Native
settlement, a French fort, a rail and shipping hub, the political centre of Canada, an aerospace
and software centre, and now a Francophone cultural capital. Important to its success was the
ability to diversify and to embrace new developments.
The project I am proposing is not a new idea. Productive urban landscapes are prominent in twentieth century urban utopias like Ebeneezer Howard’s Garden City and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City.
The method of design is not a new idea. Medinas, adobe huts, and other vernacular settlements are still after thousands of years.
The development model is not a new idea. The most splendid Gothic cathedrals were financed through community donation and collaboration.
The most important idea is uniting them at the specific place at the right time. Now is the right
time, and Montreal is the right place.
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References
Primary Sources
Cardinal Hardy. Campus Outremont Université de Montreal: Analyse et Orientations du Projet d’Amenagement. Montreal, 2006
This report commissioned by the University of Montreal provides comprehensive analysis – traffic, noise, soil, commercial activity, pedestrian circulation – of the Outremont rail yard and surroundings, and proposes possible campus schemes.
Frazer, John. Themes VII: An Evolutionary Architecture. London: John Frazer and the Architectural Association, 1995.
John Frazer revisits the pioneering work he developed at the Architectural Association involving computing and design. He argues for a new model for architecture more closely tied to science, and embracing natural sciences, cybernetics, complexity, and chaos.
Jacobs, Jane. The Nature of Economies. Toronto: Random House Canada, 2000.
Jane Jacobs revisits the ideas she developed in The Economy of Cities, and Cities and the Wealth of Nations to further her thoughts on the economy. She argues that since humans "exist wholly within nature as part of natural order in every respect," we should derive ideas about development, economics, and urbanism from natural processes.
Mathews, Stanley. From Agit‐Prop to Free Space: The Architecture of Cedric Price. Black Dog Publishing: London, 2007.
The Potteries Thinkbelt by Cedric Price rethought the architect’s relationship to social and economic development. Price’s fantastical proposal was seriously considered by the British government because of its social and implementation considerations.
Oswalt, Philip, ed. Shrinking Cities International Research volume 1. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006.
This collection of articles and projects covers the underlying reasons for shrinking cities, and elaborates on an emerging practice in this field. The books expose similar situations in the United States, Russia, Great Britain, and Germany. Notable projects by Charles Waldheim, OMA, Gordon Matta‐Clark, and Superstudio are included.
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Secondary Sources
Bailkey, Martin, and Jerry Kaufman. “Farming Inside Cities: Entrepreneurial Agriculture in the United States.” Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2000.
Branzi, Andrea. Learning from Milan: Design and the Second Modernity. The MIT Press: Cambridge, 1988.
Chu, Karl. “Metaphysics of Genetic Architecture and Computing.” Architectural Design 76 (2006): 38‐45.
DeLanda, Manuel. “Deleuze and the Use of the Genetic Algorithm.” 2001.
Gopakumar, Govind and David Hess. "Case Study of Community Gardens." Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute, 2005.
Mathews, Stanley. From Agit‐Prop to Free Space: The Architecture of Cedric Price. Black Dog Publishing: London, 2007.
Morgan, Faith, Eugene Murphy, and Megan Quinn. The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. AlchemyHouse Productions Inc., 2006.
Oswalt, Philip, ed. Shrinking Cities Interventions volume 2. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006.
Thom, Megan. “Cultivating Connections: The Urban Agriculture Movement.”
Vockler, Kai. "Cultures of Ruins," in Shrinking Cities International Research volume 1. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006.
Vogel, Steven. “Self‐Reliant Services.” Detroit: University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, 2004.
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Appendix: Figures
Figure 1. Rail networks in Montreal.
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Figure 2. Outremont rail yards and surrounding context.
Figure 3. Vine growth experiments and research.