Adaptive Reuse for Urban Food Provision (eBook)

This book analyses the adaptive reuse potential of inner-city modern movement car parking structures for controlled environment agriculture systems and the contribution of such a transformation to urban development. Modern movement garages built over the last 60 years are becoming redundant due to changing mobility trends and growing environmental awareness. Adaptive reuse is one of the scenarios that can reconcile these megastructures with contemporary urban needs. The novel function proposed in this study for multi-storey garages is controlled environment agriculture, which is a food production technique that is now developing in cities as an innovative business and a secondary food source.  

First, the study focuses on the theory of repurposing existing buildings for food production, which is then summarised in the form of a guide for the analysis of the adaptive reuse potential of inner-city car parking structures for controlled environment agriculture. Second, the guide is applied to two case studies, which allows exploring their potential to accommodate urban farming from planning, architectural, and environmental perspectives. 
The book aims to inspire and support decision-makers, architects, scholars and students when elaborating novel solutions for repurposing buildings for alternative functions. The publication encourages treating existing building stock as a resource that can become a stimulus for the new design process, which improves urban food provision.

Monika Szopinska-Mularz is an architect, postgraduate researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture at Rzeszow University of Technology (Poland). She holds a Ph.D. in Architecture and Urbanism awarded by the University of Portsmouth (UK). After graduating from Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland) in 2010 with a Master of Architecture and Urbanism degree, she practised architecture in KuP Architekten in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and ST Architekci in Rzeszow, Poland. Monika is a registered member of the Polish Chamber of Architects. In 2009, she was awarded special selection praise in the JAD International Design Competition in South Korea for creating a Soft Space as a conceptual reaction to the recent worldwide economic crisis. Her current research focus is on adaptive reuse of buildings, urban agriculture and resilient urban design. In the architectural practice, she mainly works on modernising existing building stock, adaptive reuse and landscape design.