On the Pomona site, the Laboratory of Productive Ecologies will continue to develop in 4-yearly phases. The primary programme is always intended to be centred around the growing and sharing of food, but the hope is that the range of secondary programme will become increasingly diverse over time, developing with each phase in direct response to the needs and wants of the community at the time of construction. This approach “recognizes the collective nature of the city, and allows for the participation of multiple authors”, as per Stan Allen’s approach. The nature of the construction system means that vaulted spaces of different size and configuration can be created for different programme requirements, and these spaces can accommodate different types of programme over the structure’s lifetime.
In its rationale of bolstering local food security in a socially and ecologically sustainable manner, the project very much fits within the broader discourse of the Smart City movement, as advocated by CJ Lim (fig.19), seeking to establish “ecological symbiosis between nature and built form to create…resilient landscapes including and beyond urban agriculture.” The project’s ambition beyond the site is therefore for to bring the coupling of its specific new construction methodology and typology into this expanding global movement.
Fig.19 – Smartcities, Resilient Landscapes + Eco-Warriors book
This book by CJ Lim and Ed Liu is key to the Smart City movement that Laboratory of Productive Ecologies relates to. It contains a diverse range of speculative projects along with several manifestos. These different manifestos offer different perspectives, ideas and methodologies which can fit under the Smart City envelope. The Laboratory of Productive Ecologies would add to this discourse with its own manifesto – adding value back into the movement which was important to inspiring and developing it.
At first, it would be desirable to test the ideas out on other urban brownfield sites in the UK. In each new iteration, the coupling of the acquired knowledge and experience of core members of the Pomona Integrated Project Insurance (IPI) team, with the new site constraints and fresh perspectives and requirements of the local communities of each site, should facilitate constant improvement and innovation of the methodologies and philosophies.
Beyond the UK, it would be particularly interesting to establish sites in places where bamboo is a native species. The local knowledge of this as a building material would certainly lead to greater innovation and refinement of the process (fig.20).
Fig.20 – speculative ‘ideas export’ map
The arrows on the map point some of the main places in the world where woody bamboo species grow as a native species. Expanding the movement to these areas will be particularly exciting and rewarding for the movement as a whole.
Ultimately, the desire is that this will become a global, open-source movement, where anyone is encouraged to draw from the ever-increasing collective knowledge, experience and ideas to enact their own Laboratory of Productive Ecologies, and then share the knowledge that they acquire from it back into the movement. This way, an ever-expanding and enriching global community is created, with increasing numbers of local communities the environment benefitting within that. To actively aid this from the Pomona site, the development would seek from the outset to run summer schools and workshops with the Manchester School of Architecture. As an institution of over 700 students from over 50 countries, this is a fantastic opportunity to increase the reach of the project’s ideas.
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