Performing the City: a Hybrid Composting Center and Urban Food Park in Seattle, WA

Abstract

This thesis investigates how the built environment can be a catalyst to enhance the design and performance of our cities. As cities continue to grow, so do their demands for space and resources. Global municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the most important by-products of today’s way of life. It is being produced at an alarming rate and with irreparable costs to our quality of life and our environment. In light of the City of Seattle’s new and visionary ban on organic and compostable waste in garbage, a zero waste model for a new 10-acre public park is proposed on a prominent site at the heart of the city. A composting facility and food hub are inserted to perform an open landscape. The resource life-cycling of organic waste to food is exposed on one site to bring awareness to the global waste problem and showcase a new socially responsible model that performs the site and its larger city.