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GREEN DEAL Greenhouse devices in the urban voids of historical fabrics. The case of Cuenca-Ecuador

Maria Gabriela Pozo Palacios

GREEN DEAL Greenhouse devices in the urban voids of historical fabrics. The case of Cuenca-Ecuador.

Rel. Roberta Ingaramo, Maicol Negrello. Politecnico di Torino, Corso di laurea magistrale in Architettura Per Il Progetto Sostenibile, 2020

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Abstract:

The current crisis has alarmingly worsened the percentages and has proven the need to develop public policies to foster resilience and ensure food sovereignty. Governments challenges aim to transform cities within a comprehensive and sustainable scope. The introduction of urban agriculture in strategical locations has the potential to tackle several needs, besides, the use of the urban acupuncture method can integrate a healthy, self-sufficient and socially cohesive scenario, with a positive environmental impact. Since 1950, the growth of the urbanization rate in Latin America has reached 93% and by 2050 about 70% of people will live in urban areas (UN, 2018). The rural to urban migration, affects the food production sector: “migration has been empirically linked with the structural transformation process: as urban population shares increase, employment tends to shift from agriculture towards industry/manufacturing, or services” (Michaels et al., 2012). Therefore, a possible lack of local food supply over time and a change in consumption towards imported processed foods. Besides, the current food system, depends on resource imports and involves long transportation routes and high-energy necessities for the storing, cooling, and packaging of products. The path of urban agriculture as an urban industry is feasible for food security, employment and communal dynamics. Besides, urban acupuncture, which strategically intervenes small-scale targeted areas with big scale effects, has the potential to “heal” specific areas in complex urban fabrics. The historic center of Cuenca-Ecuador was declared as Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 1999 by UNESCO, thus it has undergone many public policies and interventions to preserve the heritage and increase its touristic attractions. However, it has been facing processes of gentrification, which led to the abandonment of spaces, or historical buildings converted into overcrowded degraded slums. The agriculture is part of the tradition, thanks to its all-year mild climate and its vast soil. Moreover, in the republican architectural typologies, a private patio devoted to family farming was always built, nevertheless, over time, the new needs and the outstanding prices of land, have diminished areas for farming, and old typologies have been converted into rental parking lots or spaces for commerce. Consequently, it is easy to find some left “in-between” spaces in the orthogonal trace, in which, some small-scale interventions could impact the dynamics of the city. The thesis focuses in the implementation of urban greenhouse devices as “needles” within the urban acupuncture approach. The proposal analyzes two urban voids with different environmental and physical conditions in order to create an adaptative, sustainable and replicable system of urban agriculture originated in the cores of the blocks that spread into the city center, in order to boost local food production and small economies. It consists in five parts. The first briefs the situation of urban planet and Ecuador. The second is a theoretical approach to the urban acupuncture, urban voids and urban agriculture. The third part regards to concepts and strategies of greenhouse devices and cultivation methods, especially hydroponics. The fourth consists in two case studies at different scales and levels of participation and the last part is the analysis of the situation and needs of the city and the application of the research in the proposal.

Relators: Roberta Ingaramo, Maicol Negrello
Academic year: 2020/21
Publication type: Electronic
Number of Pages: 199
Subjects:
Corso di laurea: Corso di laurea magistrale in Architettura Per Il Progetto Sostenibile
Classe di laurea: New organization > Master science > LM-04 - ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING
Aziende collaboratrici: Politecnico di Torino
URI: http://webthesis.biblio.polito.it/id/eprint/17084
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