FOOD NETWORK: ARCHITECTURE OF CONNECTION IN THE LOWER NINTH WARD

Abstract

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans with widespread flooding and infrastructural damage. The Lower Ninth Ward has since experienced a slow recovery from the catastrophic flooding it endured. Among the various physical, social, and economic challenges still facing the neighbourhood, this thesis identifies the community’s subsequent social disintegration following Katrina, and its continuing challenged access to nutritious food as primary arguments for a food hub co-operative in the center of the neighbourhood. The power of the co-operative lies in the collectivization of social, physical, and financial assets of the currently fractured community. The food “hub” then becomes the heart of the neighborhood, facilitating social ownership, renewed purpose and responsibility, and financial empowerment. At an urban scale the centrally located food hub anchors an expansive food network, enabling a city ward currently devoid of collective means to get back on its feet.