(community garden)
This is a shot of our finished community garden. The glass that surrounds the garden will actually come through the second floor, up to the roof. The top will be covered by a cage type lid that will keep the birds out without blocking the sunlight and rain water. The garden will be open during school hours and after school until dark for the community to use. Botanic classes, agricultural and planting classes will be available for the students and community. Also students that still need community hours can gain them by helping out in the garden.
The vegetables and fruits (apples, oranges, bananas, berries, tomatoes, corn, carrots, and potatoes) that will be grown in the garden will also be used in the cafeteria for lunch and breakfast.
The community garden can also perhaps grow an assortment of flowers and even sell them for prom, dances, birthdays, and other special occasions. Students can also grow their own flowers to sell on fundraisers and such. These kind of sell outs could also be open to the community.
Comments
We are concerned about how your firm be able to plant all the numerous amount of fruits, vegetables, and all the different types of flowers listed above if there is only a limited amount of space in the middle of your cafeteria.
The fruits and vegetables listed above are planted and will be grown in limited amount. As for the flowers and other plants that either the community or students would like to plant, this issue will be addressed and settled by vote. In any case even if did provide more space many people will not be pleased if we were to choose what they should plant, so that is why we turn it in to the people.
Zac Mathieu - Dynamic Associates Agency
Although the indoor garden is an interesting concept for your design, don't you think that you would be able to make a more efficient and larger garden by building it ouside
Director of Landscaping-Priscilla Vincze
We realized that by building the garden outside it would mean that our building would have been smaller, but we decided as a group to focus on the issue the cafeteria staff are facing with the current kitchen; the small size of it. So by enlarging the entire cafeteria to make the kitchen bigger there was no space around the cafeteria except in the quad which is out of question. Another option we had was to built the garden on the roof but we decided to have solar panels. So by building the garden inside the cafeteria it would not only look unique and creative but the students will have a more pleasing sight than the walls of the cafeteria.
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Lavesha Warr- Cisco: Architect 7
Are you aware of the possibility that the glass could break? How will you manage the activity aroung the garden to keep it from damage by students?
Lavesha Warr- Cisco: Architect 7
Are you aware of the possibility that the glass could break? How will you manage the activity aroung the garden to keep it from damage by students?
Jay - Gold Team
I like the layout of the garden so far but what will you guys do during summer and winter to keep the garden substainable and well maintained?
Jay - Gold Team
I like the layout of the garden so far but what will you guys do during summer and winter to keep the garden substainable and well maintained?
Ikram Magzoub (Director of Interior Decor)
I think the way you guys decided to include the garden within the building is very interesting. However, how do you plan on making sure the plants get sun at all times? Having glass walls might not be sufficient giving the fact that there will be a roof that covers the building.
Melissa Gonzalez-Director of exterior design
I like the idea of your group incorporating a garden inside the cafeteria, although there are many problems that seem to go with it because if you have a garden inside how are all the plants going to get a sufficient amount of sunlight and water, and how is it going to be well maintained?
So the community garden is more of a greenhouse? That is an interesting idea but seems like it would be a bit harder to pull off growing vegetables and fruit with the natural climate of the room or will add to energy costs if you must keep certain conditions in the room.
Cheyenne Garcia - Director of Energy and Sustainability
I really like the graden inside of the cafeteria so when people sit around and just enjoy the view of the garden. I also like the fact that you have orange trees. Anna Merkushev-Dynamic Designs
Priscilla Vincze: Director of Landscaping-(Elite Designs inc.)
-Lavesha Warr,we did consider this problem and to solve it we as a team decided to use Toughened glass. This special glass is much stronger compared to normal glass; and when broken it crumbles into small granular chunks instead of splintering into jagged shards. And also for everyones safety the sudents will be supervised by a teacher during lunch.
-Jay, thank you for your comment. To answer your concern; during the summer the garden will be well watered and there will be plenty of sunlight from around the glass windows and up from the open roof. Also during the winter it will have natural watering from the rain and there will be full mantainance from the commnuity and students.
-Ikram Magzoub, the roof will not be covered, and yes there will be enough sunlight at all times. Please take time to read the description from under the picture. It includes that: "The glass that surrounds the garden will actually come through the second floor, up to the roof. The top will be covered by a cage type lid that will keep the birds out without blocking the sunlight and rain water. " So not only will there be sunlight from around the cafeteria windows but also from the open roof.
-Melissa Gonzalez. I am glad you like the idea our group incorporated. And I hope there are not that "many problems" with it :). If you take time to read the description under the picture it states that "The top will be covered by a cage type lid that will keep the birds out without blocking the sunlight and rain water. " So it will have sunlight and also enugh water not only from the rain but from the commnuity and students.
-Cheyenne Garcia. Yes, the community garden is more of a greenhouse. The garden will have good climate conditions because during the summer the cafeteria will have the air conditioning going inside and the glass surrounding the garden will be cool and will keep the garden in a bit lower climate, but just as a normal garden it will survive the high temperatures if watered as needed. And during the winter because it has a open roof will have natural watering and the climate will be higher than outside.
Anna Merkushev- Thank you for your encouraging comment!
Michael Dodge- Architect 7
Great idea, but are all your plants water efficient?
Shireen Sayareh- Elite Urban Innovators
Good Job i really like the interior design of the community garden. Is your window just one whole peice of glass? or is there multiple peices to it.
Priscilla Vincze: Director of Landscape Design(Elite Designs Inc.)
Michael Dodge- Thank you! and to answer your question we wanted to keep our plants water efficinet by following some saving water techniques. Which are grouping our plants with the similar water needs, target the timing and amount of water needed, and we also decided to use organic matter because it holds over ten times more water and nutrients than
normal soil.
Shireen Sayareh- Thank you! And yes, the window is one whole piece; just like a cylinder.
I love how you put the glass around the garden, it is very smart because it could stop people from harming it like the incident we had with our school garden when they broke in and vandalized it. this way it would be harder for that to happen.
-Emily Garcia Elite Urban Innovators
Priscilla Vincze- Director of Landscape (Elite Designs Inc.)
Thank you Emily Garcia, for you encouraging comment.
The multiple uses you gave to the garden are fascinating. The ways the students, the school, and the community could utilize this community garden is brilliant. However, for these uses to be fulfilled, the amount of space given for this community garden is limiting. Given the multifarious uses you listed above, I beleive that some cafeteria seating space could be sacrificed to enlarge the garden inside, or taking up some space of the over-sized quad wouldn't be such a bad idea either if you chose to relocate it outside in order to enlarge it.
-Millie Flores (Director of Exterior Design)
Thank you for the positive comment. We did extend our cafeteria both in length and width. The diameter of the garden inside is 12 meters and our team felt like that was enough space for the garden.
Tanya R - Director of Community Relations