Edible Schoolyard Set to Spring to Life in Brooklyn
Posted By Sarah Parsons On February 1, 2010 @ 3:12 pm In Architecture,Botanical,Gardening,New York City,Sustainable Building,Urban design | No Comments
Teaching city kids about sustainable farming can be tricky. After all, in a bustling metropolis like New York [4], it’s easy to see why some youngsters think apples originate in bins at their local bodega. Famed foodie Alice Waters [5] and her Chez Panisse Foundation [6] aim to remedy that lack of knowledge with the Edible Schoolyard initiative [7], a program that builds gardens right on school properties. The latest Edible Schoolyard will be built at PS. 216, an elementary school located in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood [8].
Edible Schoolyard NY [9] and the Chez Panisse Foundation [10] collaborated with Work Architecture Company [11] to design the impressive facility. The $1.6 million center will include a solar-powered kitchen classroom, mobile greenhouse [12], rainwater cistern [13], composting system, outdoor pizza oven, and a chicken coop. The test kitchen will serve as a classroom where up to 30 kids can gather to create meals together or learn other lessons. The kitchen’s butterfly-shaped roof collects rainwater and feeds into the neighboring mobile greenhouse, a structure that covers 1,600 square feet of soil in the cold months and slides away during the spring and summer seasons.
The goal of the Edible Schoolyard [14] is not only to teach kids about sustainable food production, but also to serve as a hands-on, living ecosystem that can be used to incorporate math, art, history and science lessons. School administrators hope that eventually the facility will serve as a center for agriculture and the environment [15], a topic often addressed by many of today’s most prominent foodies [16].
Organizers still have some fundraising to do in order to secure enough money to build Brooklyn’s new Edible Schoolyard [14], but if all goes according to plan, designers will break ground on the project this summer.
+ Chez Panisse Foundation [10]
Via Arch Daily [14]
Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/brooklyn-edible-schoolyard/
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[1] Tweet: http://twitter.com/share
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[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/brooklyn-edible-schoolyard/
[4] New York: http://www.inhabitat.com/nyc/
[5] Alice Waters: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/13/60minutes/main4863738.shtml
[6] Chez Panisse Foundation: http://www.chezpanisse.com/about/alice-waters/
[7] Edible Schoolyard initiative: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/dining/20edible.html?ref=dining
[8] Gravesend neighborhood: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/realestate/10livi.html
[9] Edible Schoolyard NY: http://www.facebook.com/esyny
[10] Chez Panisse Foundation: http://www.chezpanissefoundation.org/
[11] Work Architecture Company: http://work.ac/
[12] mobile greenhouse: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/12/03/bel-air-mini-mobile-greenhouse/
[13] rainwater cistern: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/03/05/cista-rainwater-cachement-by-moss-sund-and-figforty/
[14] Edible Schoolyard: http://www.archdaily.com/47183/edible-schoolyard-work-ac/
[15] agriculture and the environment: http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/
[16] most prominent foodies: http://www.michaelpollan.com/
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