Justification for Eco-Quarter: Sustainability Hub

The “Eco-Quarter’s” vertical farming facility will become a hub of sustainability and ecological practices, forming a key cornerstone towards a sustainable residential scheme, as a part of the Waterside Development in Nottingham. By growing locally produced food onsite, the need for a long distance distribution chain is removed. The carbon footprint of regional and international haulage companies, that conventionally transport our food products from all over the world, can be drastically reduced or removed entirely from the process. The Eco-Quarter’s facility will be one of the first of its kind in implementing a sustainable source of natural and healthy food stocks within a well-established inner-city area of the UK, all within walking distance at all times for its patrons. The unknown factors of climate change leading to both disrupted crop yields and the loss of arable farming lands due to flooding and urbanisation will help to establish this scheme as a necessary component of the sustainable ethos that the Trent Basin is aiming to achieve. The Eco-Quarter also has the potential of becoming a newly established 'Gateway' to the waterside regeneration due to its access along the river frontage and previous proposals from developers, on how best to reintegrate human occupation alongside improving the natural ecosystems of the river itself, by implementing a local Bio-diversity Action plan (BAP) alongside Nottingham City's existing schemes. The proposal will have several modulated growing pods, as apart of a compartmentalised system, that will be interchangeable and allow differing configurations of room layouts and purposes. All of this will be within a fixed outer shell framework allowing the overall structure to be future proofed for easier conversion into either residential dwellings or a small hub for starter companies to rent out the office space within the Trent Basin area.