The Bartlett
B-Pro Show 2021
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Research Cluster RC18

In the new geological era of the Anthropocene, more extreme climates illustrate the important impact of human activities on the spatial relationship of agricultural society, the transformation of land use systems, and the planetary ecosystem.


This research started from Neil Brenner's theory, which critically proposed an urban cognition method and redefined the city. The design revolves around an abandoned railway in Paris, and takes phosphorus as the material of investigation. As an indispensable element in the biochemical cycle, phosphorus is an important existence of DNA and an essential element in evolution. 80% of the world's phosphorus is used in fertilisers, which shows that phosphorus is highly correlated with food. However, the phosphorus cycle is a limited, one-way cycle, which points to the urgency of food safety and food waste on a global scale.


The farm expressed in terms of phosphorus can achieve urban intervention from the micro-molecular level to the macro-level. Through artificial intelligence, evolutionary algorithms and the exploration of complex problems, a multi-objective solution strategy is proposed to adjust the current food problems caused by multiple conflicts between cities and villages, capital and local residents. In the end, a new agricultural paradigm contributes to the city's ecological diversity and richer food culture.

01

Introduction of Phosphorus

Phosphorus in Planetary Levels

Not only is phosphorous in every cell of humankind, it's critical to the growth of crops and livestock that feed us. We are all dependent on it.

Phosphorus Lost in Global Scale

This map shows the annually global phosphorus use in agriculture and the global phosphorus lost in the land. There is usually more phosphorus loss in countries that use a lot of phosphorus.

02

Phosphorus Distribution in France

The map shows the distribution of phosphorus in Europe. The closer the color is blue, the greater the concentration of phosphorus, and the closer the color is to light yellow, the lower the concentration of phosphorus.

Unbalanced of the Distribution of Phosphorus and Food Type

By comparing the geographical and spatial distribution of phosphorus legacy, it can be found that the distribution of phosphorus is extremely unbalanced.

Migrant Population in Paris

Low-income people and migrants are concentrated in the outer districts of Greater Paris. However, the food supply is mainly targeted at the central area of Greater Paris. This has led to uneven food distribution.

03

Food Culture Data Mining

Social Media Data Mapping

In order to bring back the biodiversity of food, social media provides the opportunity to collect people’s preference data related to food culture.

Food Trend Extract from Color Code

Extract the key information of the dishes and use k-means colour clustering to get the ingredient percentage. Food culture trends are used to determine the proportion of crops grown in the project.

Generation of Pixel Public Farms

By analysing the sunlight data, the area with best sunlight is selected as the test field. The food trend data obtained from social media is used to guide the generation of pixel public farms.

Master Plan with Food Data

Master plan with pixel farm, sunlight index data and height data.

04

Mass Generation

Using Wallacei to Optimise the Project

The project attempts to balance three obiectives. 1. Maximise the sunlight transmission of the building: 2. Maximise the platform area; and 3, Minimise the number of edges jaggies.

Reprogramming Building Blocks

According to the previous process of generating building programs, the project applies the evolutionary algorithm to perform optimisation analysis and selects an ideal option by balancing the three objectives.

Night Time Aerial View Rendering

Night time aerial view of the whole project.

Day Time Aerial View Rendering of Pixel Farm and Green House

Day time aerial view rendering of pixel farm and green house.

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The Bartlett
B-Pro Show 2021
30 October – November 13
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