Architecture for Community Support and Urban Agriculture

Abstract

Food insecurity has become a significant global challenge as food systems are controlled by large scale food retailers and supermarkets that distance the consumer from local fresh food. Alongside this model, a bottom-up approach is emerging - one that includes urban agriculture as a social asset implemented by local community initiatives. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, these local growing systems augment the neighbourhood’s community support structure by channelling existing social capital to empower people while prioritising local fresh produce. Supporting these, often transient, growing spaces is a network of buildings - community kitchens, gathering spaces, produce markets, greenhouses, community hubs, among others. This thesis asks if this architecture of local production can create opportunities for linking a neighbourhood’s social support, urban agriculture and community while establishing a local fresh produce culture as a permanent social asset.