After the crit on Monday, I have decided to refine the programme. I believe the proposal should revolve around the idea of a service station for allotments- which would predominantly be floating but could also help to provide materials, seeds etc to one of the many traditional allotments in the borough of Southwark. The reason for this is to ensure the programme informs the architecture, rather than the contrary. The programme is extremely unusual, along with the choice of site and I believe that it is this aspect of the thesis which should  be as visible as possible when viewing the project at later dates. This process of refinement has led me to believe that I should trim out aspects such as auditoria, meeting rooms, libraries etc and concentrate on the functional requirements of a service station. Offices, storage (for materials which are later sold to the public) and the market are the aspects which I intend to keep, with cranes and robotic arms spanning between the existing piers tending to the barges below.

I have started to calculate the potential ‘growing power’ of the barges, which I will comment more on at a later date, but initial calculations suggest that the area between Tower Bridge and Waterloo (a 3km stetch of the Thames) could serve upto 836 people. This is based on the fact that there are currently 55 barges occupying this stretch of water, covering 33,000m2. A traditional allotment of 250m2 during the Second World War was estimated at providing enough fresh vegetables to cater for the annual needs of 6 people. These calculations do not take into consideration the fact that that farming hydroponically on the barges could increase this figure. If London’s average population density of 4,800 ppl/km2 is applied to this data, then, if only the EXISTING barges are devoted to food production then this area of the Thames could cater for 34% of the population. There is the potential for this figure to increase if additional structures are proposd.

Green spaces in London- Including back-gardens, parks and waterways. All of which, if utilized, could help to increase the amount of food we produce in the capital.

Below is a video describing the science barge in New York, something which I briefly mentioned yesterday. The concept of growing on water is something which I want to pick up on in my proposal, with similar structures envisaged as occupying the River Thames and London’s other waterways. Many will not be as advanced as the one depicted below, but all will exist for the the same purpose of increasing the amount of productive land we have in the capital.

As one of the methods of digital fabrication that I identified, I have created a site model of the area by contouring the site using plywood cut with a jigsaw. This was then cast in concrete to convey the permanace of the site as well as the archaeological history of Royal Fort House and surrounding area. The model portrays an image of a ruined city rather well I feel!