The thesis topic is how to get school children access to urban farming by activating vacant land and rooftops.
Phase one focuses on research about the rooftop urban farming systems in New York. As a high density and high land value city, New York is one of the cities with the largest number of rooftop farms in the United States. People use urban rooftop farms as a medium to improve community engagement and improve environmental issues. For phase one, this thesis researched the operation and conditions of existing rooftop farms, and evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of them to figure out the problems they are facing. In addition, phase one discusses what kind of programs could be used to connect-people.
Phase two is aiming to combine different urban farming typologies together and explore how to use urban farming to serve children’s education. The specific idea in phase two is how to use urban farming as a method to create outdoor learning classrooms for children and community members. It also expands on ideas about combining different kinds of urban farming, and developing urban farming with the next generation of children.
Phase three is aiming to place four urban farming typologies according to local conditions at the thesis site, and making urban farming accessible to school children. This phase investigates how to create the specific urban farming system for this site. In addition, phase three is concerned with expanding the existing urban farming design strategies and systems, and introducing new strategies and systems
