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Securing Scarcities: The Territorialisation of Production

Part 2 Project 2013
Christopher Turner
University of Plymouth | UK
This project was done in a ‘live project’ scenario – located in a real place, discussed with and inspired by a local business association and owners of the site in Warsaw, Poland. The foundation of the project is based on a belief that architecture could become an integral part of the social, economic and political struggle for a better world.

Identifying social, economic and ecological imperatives for change the urban strategy suggests growth can no longer continue based on its current synthetic linear processes. The current economic order is premised on capital accumulation with scant regards to social well-being and employment, leading to a fractured society with extreme socio-economic differentiation.

The strategic goals of the urban strategy are focused on empowering the individual through giving them the tools to construct a new and more equitable society based on the power of networks of trust, co-operation, symbiosis and mutual agenda. It is a facilitator, providing a platform for the citizens of Warsaw to shape and determine their own sustainable future. The strategy suggests a future based on circular organic systems that establish a symbiosis between multiple economic logics. By utilising natural systems, harnessing ecology and feeding the process as required the people of Ursus can reap huge dividends.

The proposals establish an artificial ecosystem driven by natural processes, fostering a synthesis between landscape and architecture. Instead of seeking to extract as much as humanly possible from the natural environment through intensive agriculture, and raw material extraction, this system for a new form of urban agriculture will introduce biological loops for restorative purposes rather than exploitation.

Giving people ownership over systems of food and energy production could be a potential source of empowerment for the creation of a more equitable society, changing perceptions of how humans relate to ecological waste streams, biological systems and economics.

The proposals test the interface between residential dwellings and productive industry, in particular the high tech production of plant crops and aquaculture systems, giving people stewardship over emerging technologies in return for tangible rewards such as fresh produce and shared equity in new models of cooperatives.

Christopher Turner

Tutor(s)

2013
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