Novák Adrienn

Architecture MA
supervisor
Göde András
masterwork consultant
Guba Sándor
masterwork opponent
Rádler Luca
thesis consultant
Szarvas Márton
thesis opponent
Mihály Melinda
masterwork

Urban production network

Urban production has moved into cities and taken over urban areas in various ways over time. The main areas of urban agriculture are the transitional spaces on the outskirts of cities, allotments on the peripheries, and urban farms, typically outside the core of the city, used for larger-scale production. The best-known, conventional method of urban production is community gardens in the city centre. As a counterpoint to open fields, modern urban habitats and residents started to move continuous and secure food supply indoors, into a controlled environment. The various, 21st-century “high-tech backyard farming” methods (for example vertical farms, soilless agriculture) are boosted by the growth of cities, the decrease in the area available and/or suitable for farming, extreme conditions or the possibility to use existing, unused facilities, buildings or wings for an alternative purpose... Production areas are difficult to integrate permanently into the urban fabric, these are temporary elements in the city. We see them on residual, unused, found places – green islands in the urban fabric. In my masterwork the places of urban agriculture are point-like, modular, mobile and built on water, both literally and theoretically. The core components of my plan are unused floating platforms, barges, and the key production factor, irrigation water, is taken locally, through surface water abstraction (from the Danube) and is purified locally. The base is a type of floating platform, a TS barge (80m by 10m). The structures designed for the floating platforms, the “floating houses” form a network on the river Danube. The fundamental element of the pilot fleet I designed is the boat for local production, which is a vertical garden with cultivated plant communities, an urban living laboratory of sorts for demonstration purposes. The other elements include a base for the whole system (for management and education and research activities), and a tea house and a cookery school where the crops are processed and consumed. As I placed these functions in context, I designated 3 locations. The base is on Népsziget island, the production ship is at the Újpest embankment, and the tea house-cookery school is on Batthyány Square. The elements can be combined, complemented and arranged. With my project I provide a proposal regarding the issue of short supply chains, the reinvention of urban production and irrigation water supply, and, indirectly, the expansion potential and alternatives to water infrastructure and the currently available monofunctional use on the Danube.
thesis

Food-related urban dilemmas

Alternatives in urban food production

Food consumption has changed radically, and the effects are mostly concentrated in urban areas. This is due to technological and economic factors, but also to social and ecological issues. With the globalisation of production, foodstuff has become flexibly available, independent from season and geographical location, and while this is convenient, there are a lot of negative consequences. In my thesis I explore the connection between the city and the production of plants for consumption and the opportunities in this context. I aim to identify the key food-related questions and the diverse effects food has when placed in an urban context.