The Hive : Urban Agriculture Cooperative
Kansas City, MO Spring '14
The Project: The Hive is an urban agriculture cooperative based in downtown Kansas City, the design required development of several unusual pieces of program in coordination with each other such as an apiary, and greenhouse area. Other pieces of the program include a farm to table restaraunt, an event space, workshop space, and administration.
The intent of the design is to capture the area's active qualities by thinking of the structure as a ' connection' between the movement through and around the site. By creating this central connection, the desire is to influence public interaction with the urban argricultral objective and the public pieces of the program, as well as create to lively and interactive space for public meeting and visiting.
Design Intent
By thinking of the lobby as the main piece, or ' connector, ' the aim was to arrange this open entry between the surrounding exterior public spaces that are used as planting areas and exterior public space. The lobby then becomes the center that connects the buildings program around an interior center, surrounded by exterior space and circulation. After doing this, the programs were oriented to have the public zones, such as the shop, event space, and farm to table restaurant, placed around the center. By doing this the goal was to have each seperate function open up into the central space, to bleed the public spaces together by allowing sliding glass walls to open to the center, and influence interaction and interest by the people who were drawn into the open connecting lobby. By doing this, the separate programs extend outward from their normal spaces into the interior public sace. For example, the restaurant can extend its seating into the center, or the event space can grow into it, or the greenhouse can sell plants or tools on certain days.
After the public spaces were directly attached to the center the private areas were pushed to the back while still maintaining relationships with each other and the center. Primarily, the apiary area was placed above the low rising roof of the office with visual connection from the rear exterior space to create visual intrest for the public. The greenhouse was oriented on the rear west end and added to the edge of the event space to create a relationship of the spaces, and to offer users insight into the agricultural goals of the building.
Design Approach
Conclusion
The ultimate goal of the program's arrangement is to influence public interest in the urban agricultural cooperative, and create a very alive, interactive space to engage downtown city life, with a rural, green twist.
The critique of the project went very well. I was given two critiques, one formal by a professor who compared the plan arrangements of Frank Lloyd Wright, suggesting I explore the roof planes more, of which I considered. However, I liked the approach of connecting them like sloped c shapes. Another critique was informal by a member of nFORM arhitecture that gave me rendering tips and complemented my drawings for being well done at an early state in my architecture career. I appreciated both, however the informal allowed for discussion rather than the traditional present- get feedback- bottle your feelings approach of critiques.
I am proud particularly of the model I produced for the Hive, of which I recieved good comments on. Its construction sparked my love of Handcrafted models. The conceptual exploration during this project also helped develop my personal process of using a project's prompt, site, and social context to create a comprehensive, encompassing, yet simple concept to drive my projects and solve issues.
Process Model Gallery
