daniel berg

the green giant

The Green Giant is designed to be a central food hub for the community of Plank Road and for Baton Rouge. It hosts a commercial kitchen for small start up restaurants, a market area for local farmers to come sell produce as well as the produce grown on site, and a teaching kitchen for those that wish to expand their culinary skills. All of this centered around a monstrous green space that is the hub within the hub, bringing people together by their love of food.

In the courtyard there is a large sloping green space leading to the roof. Terraced on multiple levels to provide outdoor seating in between the heavier agriculture that cannot be done indoors. Not only is this space creating a connection between the visitor and the plants on the surface, but below it acts as a thermal barrier against the large commercial kitchen so that the space can stay cooler and not eat up so much energy using air conditioning. With the site being in a major flood zone, this green infrastructure will aid the community by removing 184,000 gallons of storm water per year.

The indoor vertical farm is a large space of towering vertical farms producing a variety of vegetables. These produce are then used in the teaching kitchen. The teaching kitchen is designed to have a direct connection to the indoor farm so that as the users learn about cooking, they can also learn about agriculture and simultaneously have this connection between the two.

A green wall lines the edge of the building, broken down into removable panels with varying size vegetation. This wall helps to not only block heat from the sun throughout the day, but also helps mitigate any noise pollution that comes from the busy and bustling Plank Road. Just inside the green wall is the market and some restaurant seating. While the interior benefits from the noise mitigation and shading properties of the green wall, the pedestrians on the sidewalk also benefit from a more pleasant stroll as they pass by the hub.