austin copete

the vine

This urban food hub gives the plank road community access to resources that previously have not been available. The Building sits on the corner of Mohican and Plank where a New BR rapid transit bus stop is being built. Anna street is now pedestrian only and flows from plank road through the building and out into the residential area connecting the two. The first floor has an area for food trucks giving people the opportunity to start their own business with low overhead and offers the people affordable food. On the other side is an area for pop up shops and farmers market. the second flood is based around the community kitchen and farming so you can grow your own produce then cook with it and sell it back to the community through the farmers market. On the south side of the second floor is the offices for the workers on site and outside the office is the demonstration garden to show the locals the proper way to start your own garden. On the third Flood is the teaching kitchen with classes most nights for adults and kids and a food processing facility if people need to ship, store and process their goods. The boxes of program scattered around the building sit on a 11x11 grid and since the steel structure is modular it is able to expand to fit the community’s needs. The program is surrounded by green terraces that offer space for planting your own food and helps mitigate storm water runoff and flooding in the community. The rood catches the water on site and is then recycled for irrigation throughout the program and through the vertical farming walls through a drip system. The building site on top of a larger green park space that connects the residential areas and universities back to plank road that previously weren’t there. “The Vine” acts as a catalyst to activate the surrounding neighborhoods, exemplifying one of the complex urban relationships between architecture and food.