I graduated from the University of Dundee in 2021 with a Masters in Architecture with Distinction. The final year of my course was the most successful for me personally and academically, finding my interest in renewable construction techniques whilst also being awarded a certificate of merit and nominated for the 3DReid Student Prize 2021.
My masters project entitled Growing for the Future is the piece I have chosen to display. The project was part of a larger masterplan group for the “Peri Urban” edge of Dundee, exploring how new urban developments could be reimagined from the domestic suburbia we often see attached to our cities.
My individual project focused on urban food production, exploring how new farming techniques such as vertical farming coupled with the close proximity to large commercial markets could heavily reduce environmental impacts on the soil caused by over farming, and on the air caused by transporting goods large distances out of season. By tailoring supply with local demand, the amount of waste going to landfills could also be reduced.
The buildings themselves also explored sustainable architectural practices. The implementation of modular CLT construction, moveable louvred facades and water/heat recycling systems that take advantage of the large amounts of heat generated in the growing cycle of plants. This means the project itself is of low carbon construction as well as being highly self-sustaining in terms of energy and resource usage.
Through the combination of programme, construction materials and building systems used in this project, an environmentally and socially sustainable model for the future of agriculture on the peri-urban edge of Scottish cities was achieved. A model which I hoped could be highly scalable and successful across major settlements in Scotland and further afield, tailoring the crops and architecture to the needs of the local populus and climate.
