The food centred alternative to georgian buildings

he city of Bristol holds many reminders of the Transatlantic Slave Trade through its buildings, street names and statues. Many of these appear to ‘celebrate’ those who funded and supported the horrific trade including Edward Colston. On my particular site of Redcliffe, reminders of this lie within the names of the tired looking Post-War social housing blocks and the well-maintained Georgian Townhouses of Colston Parade.

My aim was to reflect and act on these memories by dis-assembling parts of Colston Parade, and then re-assembling to form a space dedicated to helping the community. After researching how the UK Cost of Living Crisis is affecting the poorer communities, and how people are turning to chain supermarkets and fast food places, I came up with the idea for an Alternative Supermarket. A space where the production and consumption of food is localised, and the local community can see their food being grown, packaged and then traded before being eaten there or taken home. It also responds to the limits supermarkets today have created, for example, lack of social interaction through high shelving, and self-service checkouts.

By taking down the wall behind Colston Parade and raising the ground behind, I was able to create a dark, sheltered growing space beneath, and an outdoor growing space above. Within the walls of the townhouses I created a vertical garden, with a glazed sawtooth roof to maximise light reaching inside. Each space uses LED and hydroponic technology to grow the plants, ready for the market. The locals are taken on a journey from the entrance, past the dark growing layer, where they can view the food being grown, through to the market, where the open space allows for views up through to the cafe, and all vertical gardens above. Taking inspiration from the Bristol Pound scheme, I came up with the Redcliffe Coin, which would be handed out to everyone in the community to trade in for a basket in the market. These would then get filled up with fresh and healthy produce, taken home, and then returned and traded back for the coin. Any waste produce from the food would be taken to the bio-digestor on site, which would help fuel the building.

This then creates a circular economy, where produce is made, consumed, and the waste is put back into the system to continue the cycle. The proposal aims to address the limits of supermarkets, and provide somewhere where the locals can eat healthily, interact and socialise, and learn more about the production of food. It is a space they can take ownership of, breaking down the barriers and symbolism of what Colston Parade once created.