What are the needs and desires of my future citizens?

What are the needs and desires of my future citizens? What will be the design response to this?

Serving the Urban Population - Needs and Desires of Future Brisbane City Citizens.

Facts:

• By 2015 about 26 cities in the world are expected to have a population of 10 million or more. To feed a city of this size at least 6,000 tonnes (6,600 tons) of food must be imported each day.
• 250 million hungry people in the world live in cities

Particularly, what I felt was necessary to provide for the influx and increased population of Brisbane City residents, was a generation of quality food harvested by sustainable means. With an existing shortage of fresh produce stores and markets with the CBD and with the increase of residents living in and around this area, it came naturally that due to the increase of solar activity and flood channels built within the cities major lines, that these two major resources could be utilised in the form of an Urban Farm. It would be necessary for this urban farm to be versatile in its production and offering, rather than maintaining as a static structure. Thus the opportunity to create an architecture that can reach out to the various areas within the city is evident. The form of this architecture should utilise existing buildings, rather than replace, it shall be modular in spirit, where it can take on an add/subtract design, it should be able to be added and taken away from depending on the requirements of the era. It should be flexible and able to adapt to its environment. A modular system has a particular advantage in its interchangeability of parts, allowing pattern rearrangement. The module used must be a generalized one, which is somewhat neutral in quality, while performing a necessary function which is highly likely to persist.

Access to nutritious food is another perspective in the effort to locate food and livestock production in cities. Urban agriculture contributes to food security and food safety in two ways: first, it increases the amount of food available to people living in cities, and second, it allows fresh vegetables, fruits, and meat products to be made available to urban consumers. It decreases food deserts. Because urban agriculture promotes energy-saving local food production, urban and peri-urban agriculture are generally seen as sustainable agriculture. The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) defines food security as: "All persons in a community having access to culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate food through local, non-emergency sources at all times."

Serving the Urban Population - Community Benefits:

Economic

• Will expand the economic base of the city through production, processing, packaging, and marketing of consumable products.
• Provides employment and access to food for urban populations, which together contributes to relieve chronic and emergency food insecurity. Chronic food insecurity refers to less affordable food and growing urban poverty, while emergency food insecurity relates to breakdowns in the chain of food distribution. Research into market values for produce grown in urban gardens has attributed to a community garden plot a median yield value of between approximately $200 and $500US. In a community gardening program, this can account for up to 1.25 million dollars of produce cultivated annually.

Social

• Increase in health and nutrition, increased income, food security within the household, and community social life.

Energy efficiency

• The current industrial agriculture system is accountable for high energy costs for the transportation of foodstuffs. The average conventional produce item travels 1,500 miles (2,400 km), using, if shipped by tractor-trailer, 1 US gallon (3.8 l; 0.83 imp gal) of fossil fuel per 100 pounds (45 kg).The energy used to transport food is decreased when urban agriculture can provide cities with locally grown food.

Quality of food

• Supports a more sustainable production of the food that tries to decrease the use of harmful pesticides that result in agricultural runoff. Urban and local farmers also eliminate the need for preservatives, as their products do not need to travel long distances.