Nick dubuc
Roppoloville Food Hub
It consists of 2 facilities; 1 existing & 1 new. The existing building houses a small grocery & teaching kitchen. The new proposed building is a double green roof that houses 4 retail/restaurant spaces, a shared commercial kitchen, and rooftop garden. Urban infrastructure such as bike racks, street trees/landscaping, outdoor seating, community gardens, pathways, crosswalks, and street parking are employed throughout the site to welcome all residents.
The programming along Plank Road is commercial space to reactivate an urban storefront. The teaching kitchen, grocery, and retail/restaurant spaces all face the street with a typical glass storefront separating the exterior from the interior. This allows for natural day-lighting as well as a connection to the outdoors and broader community. The teaching kitchen is a typical residential layout that faces the students in the dining room style classroom. The restaurant stalls all have an individual space for customization and branding. It consists of a workspace and front counter for service. Between the two facilities, the “pop-up” alley allows for small vendors to set up a farmer’s market. Many pop-up vendors already set up along Plank Rd, this alley provides a welcoming space for them.
The new facility has 4 distinct zones of spatial programming from public to semi-private to private, respectively sidewalk/outdoor seating, dining hall, retail stalls, and commercial kitchen. The public zone accommodates any person’s seating preferences whether outdoors or indoors. The workspace is adequately laid out so that each stall has direct access to the back of house kitchen and storage areas. Lastly, there is a roof access staircase for maintaining the vegetation on the roof. A porous green wall filters the light and hides the staircase from view.
The double green roof is a passive design strategy that aids in water retention, improves water/air quality, and reduces energy consumption. It shades the building below to lower the external heat gain from the sun. The structure of the roof is composed of a steel box beam grid supported by W-section columns. Planter beds are placed within the grid for vegetable and small fruit tree cultivation by the vendors and employees of the food hub.
