Viet Village Urban Farm

     The first project is Viet Village Urban Farm is designed by Spackman, Mossap, and Michaels  “an urban farming project located in New Orleans East, an area hard hit by Hurricane Katrina”(ASLA.org). This project contains community gardens, an area for composting, commercial farming plots, recycling center and most important part is a major water collection and management system. The project will accommodates 3000 Saturday shoppers who used to buy foods before hurricane Katrina Hit (Spackman, Mossop, and Michaels).

 

      The project implementation was divided into five phases. The first phase if the project includes the construction of the central reservoir to sustainably irrigate the fields. The second phase is the implementation of the major circulation elements and the service road. The third phase includes planting and vegetation for shade, productivity and identity. The fourth phase the construction of the commercial plots and community gardens. The last phase is the development of the farmers market.  

Figure 1: Viet Village Urban Farm, New Orleans, LA. Image credit: Spackman Mossop + Michaels

The new farm will use sustainable irrigation techniques that require little or no electricity to pump and filter water used in the fields. Figure 3 shows “A cross-section for the farm plots, paths and sustainable irrigation system. Water is pumped to the fields from a centralized reservoir via a windmill and water tower system powered by electrical pumps. The water then flows into a bioswale — a system designed to naturally filter the water through soil and plants as it heads back towards the reservoir for reuse.” (ASLA.org)

According to ASLA those are the environmental benefits for this project (ASLA.org):

• Circulates Water
• Cleans Water
• Conserves Water
• Creates Urban Farm
• Ecologically Manages Stormwater
• Reduces Urban Heat
• Removes Toxic Chemicals
• Restores Soils
• Sequesters Carbon
• Solar Powered