Project Description: (version française ci-dessous)

VERTESCAPE
This thesis by Brad Augustine examines the impact of the food production industry on major urban centres. The project developed a completely internalized restaurant with no imported goods. The purpose of internalizing the growth and production of livestock and produce was to examine the theoretical food plain required to support our food needs. The investigation demonstrates, among other things, that feeding cattle requires more space than cultivating vegetables. This discovery is made tangible to patrons by having them move through the resulting high-rise farm to the penthouse restaurant in a glazed elevator viewing the multiple floors of livestock and varied crops into an eating space where herbs are grown and cooking is completely visible.

These three proposals were recent undergraduate thesis projects from the Department of Architectural Science at Ryerson University. They all have a pedagogical component, intended to spread knowledge about food production and preparation to the general public.

CENTRE FOR THE URBAN GARDENER
This project by Victoria Dmitrieva is a productive greenhouse/community teaching space, located near downtown Toronto. The south side of the building efficiently uses both vertical and horizontal growing surfaces, with specially designed cylindrical mesh structures wrapped around structural columns as well as productive living walls.

ARCHITECTURE AND NATURE
This proposal by Daniel Goymour explores the relationships between city and nature and tries to create a link between agriculture and the overbuilt downtown of Toronto by proposing green space as well as an urban agriculture learning centre on the unused space above the Union Station train platforms.