An Urban Center for Food and Agriculture

Abstract

Food does not merely nourish the body through absorption of nutrients, it creates rituals around the sharing of meals, contributes to the culture of a region or the character of a specific place and engages all of the senses. Architecture does not merely serve the basic need of sheltering the body from the elements, it conforms to or creates rituals, contributes to the style of a region or creates a `place' in the landscape and has the ability to engage all of our senses. Both food and architecture serve as mediums through which we engage with and also represent the natural world. Through composition of an agricultural, educational and culinary program for a new urban institution and interpretation of existing topography and hydrology of the site, this thesis examines the relationship between building and landscape, human scale and space, and temporality and architecture.