Over the weekend, we will all be working to create diagrams, gather plans and draw sections for each of the sites that we have been looking at for our vertical garden project. After we gather all of the information that will be important to know and we have analyzed the different sites in depth, looking at both the strengths and weaknesses for each, we will combine our information and present it. This presentation will help us to make a decision on which one of the five sites will be best for the location of our project based on a multitude of criteria such as visibility of the site, access to the site, total time of direct sunlight, level of current care and other important factors that we will be including in our analysis. After we have chosen a site, we will then start individual charettes to further look at different aspects of how a vertical garden might fit into that location.
The link below is a pdf that shows one of the six proposed sites for our vertical garden project and the surrounding programming for it. We will construct diagrams like this one for all six of our proposed sites.
63 John Street Proposed Site Surrounding Program PDF
While we are creating diagrams and analyzing the different sites, we are also continuing our research of community gardens in all aspects such as programming and benefits and tying that research in to the sites we are looking at by comparing what we have found in our research and what the site might already have to offer or what might fit in well there. We are also continuing to look at precedent studies and how they are similar or different from the sites we are considering and what makes them successful.
While looking for community garden programming, I came across Simply Divine Garden of Charleston, SC, which is a community non-profit organization that serves cancer patients by giving them the “gift of a garden.”
On another note, we are also continuing with our fruit and vegetable analysis projects. After reviewing them yesterday, we are now able to go back and look more in depth at the specific aspects of the fruit/vegetable and analyze the skin, circulation, structure, poche and transparency in greater detail.
Our goal is to have a site location, a database of research and information and our fruit/vegetable analysis diagrams and models completed by the end of the upcoming week so that we can begin to start looking at more specific site based design ideas and move forward with this exciting vertical garden project that has already proven to be a very promising experience for all of us.