Foodscapes 3: Urban Agricultural Plan for the Fayetteville Public Library

'Foodscapes' introduces urban food gardens on the Fayetteville Public Library campus in the downtown core. Planning scenarios outline three levels of investment ranging from minimum to modest and ambitious development, depending on the extent of food production activity. Activities, including growing, processing, production, distribution, waste recovery, and community education, are curated in unique urban formats offering signature visitor experiences that will extend Fayetteville’s new Cultural Arts Corridor. 'Foodscapes' features a permaculture pattern language replicating the organic growing patterns and ecosystem structure found in nature. Growing will be curated across novel urban micro-environments that promote discovery. They include small-plot organic teaching gardens, a temperate food forest, terraced orchards for foraging, a four-season greenhouse with a climate battery, and vernacular growing technologies in espaliers and thermal wall gardens using “fruit walls”. A food hub for use by residents in value-added food processing doubles as an event space, a seed bank, and a “third place” for informal gathering. 'Foodscapes' promotes food literacy and security, enriching the Fayetteville Public Library’s service as a cherished social infrastructure. 'Foodscapes 3' maximizes the site’s available footprint by embedding a full-service food hub below grade enabling the site’s entire surface to support rooftop permaculture growing. The rooftop gardens extend the usable surface of the library grounds while accommodating another level of value-add processes including waste recovery in the hillside. This megastructural approach integrates food growing, processing, the greenhouse, and sustainable building systems including composting and heat exchanges between soil and air, in a mobius strip development of the site.