Upscaling resilience: Waste as a resource

Abstract

The dissertation explores the intersection between urban resilience, the emerging issue of privatized space in relation to food deserts, food waste and food loss which all make a contribution to food security. The context under investigation provided unique opportunities that allowed for the aforementioned issues to be explored due to the presence of urban challenges presented in the form of a gated informal settlement being a home to disadvantaged and vulnerable people, surrounded by upmarket privatized space in the form of gated affluent residential estates and shopping centers. This scenario has exacerbated the problem of lack of basic provision of services which denies the urban poor of their right to the city thereby causing social, economic and environmental problems in the of form food insecurity, poverty and environmental degradation respectively which are all crucial for resilience of a people in urban areas. Although food waste and food deserts are both challenges leading to food insecurity, the intention of this dissertation is to delineate the opportunities presented by food waste to help solve the problem of food deserts by introducing sustainable localized food systems which are premised on organic waste recycling. Hence in this dissertation, waste is seen as both a problem and a resource by considering food production in a holistic and systemic manner. The dissertation therefore aims to investigate how a waste repurposing building can inhabit a liminal space that sits in a lost space and exploit its potential in order to stitch the urban fabric whilst addressing social, economic and environmental concerns that are context specific. Through the application placemaking theory and regenerative Architecture the dissertation seeks to celebrate the everyday activities of man in the form of a light Agri-based industrial building involved in the repurposing of organic food waste and its byproducts. Thus, the Architecture becomes a tool to mediate between the industrial process of waste repurposing and man’s activities of trade and consumption whilst being didactic facilitating knowledge transfer of how organic food waste can be repurposed and become a resource.