MArchD Architecture | Year One
International Architecture Regeneration and Development
Oxford Brookes University
REGENERATIVE ROOTS
Growing agricultural resistance through education in the regeneration of Nablus Power Plant.
Palestinian agricultural land has been slowly degrading over years of unmanaged, unsustainable farming, coupled with the arid climate and destruction throughout the Israeli Occupation causing the decline of the sector.
In the modern day, the agricultural sector in Nablus is hit hard and worsened by a growing population and rapid urbanisation on fertile lands. In order to regain self sufficiency and resilience within the agricultural sector, targeting soil health is vital. If you get the soil right, it can lead to healthy plants, healthy people and healthy climate whilst increasing crop yeild and generating income.
Therefore, this project focuses on two soil improvement techniques of composting and grafting by providing skills workshops for local people and farmers to gain experience and knowledge in this area. The project aims to spread awareness of soil health through education and small scale initatives to influence local people to begin composting at home, whilst teaching farmers scalable, regenerative techniques to apply to their land.
The Power Plant has high architectural and social value to Nablus and it is the view of the author that the historic building narrative should be celebrated within the proposed development. This is achieved through the reuse of key structural elements and machinery and proposing materials that respond sympathetcially to the building and surrounding cultural context.
THE POWER PLANT MASTERPLAN
The masterplan aims to create an agricultural circular economy on the Nablus Powerplant Site. This framework begins with growing and selling and finally composting to create fertilisers to use on the land. Education is the overarching factor that begins to inform the individual programs occuring throughout the site. The strategy aims to inspire other schemes within Nablus to be more self-sufficient with agriculture and teach users skills to use in the wider context.
SITE BUILDING ANALYSIS
The diagrams below identify some key benefits of the site in which my proposal will utilise.
SPATIAL REQUIREMENTS
My proposal has a primary composting area with secondary spaces of Growing, Grafting and Selling.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
My design has 3 key elements of 'the greenhouse', a raised new floor and a composting area.
Left image: Long section through the green house space and composting space below. Gabions are used as a non-load bearing wall but also act as walkways and segregation of the composting area.
Right image: Short section through the width of the building identifying the new steel frame (shown red).
Left image: Ground floor sketch iteration working out the functionality of the agircultural waste sorting area, composting area and shredding/packing area.
Right image: First floor sketch iteration working out the circulation between the growing and grafting areas as well as general functionality of the space.
FINAL OUTPUTS
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