The Seedling Hub
'Seedling ground for the growth of a resilient community'
Representative Student Speaker for SABD Design Forum: The Future Thinkers 13 | Taylor's University (2023)
The Seedling Hub is driven by the concept of circular interdependence, looking into offering greater resilience to the society and economy in the face of future shocks within the context of Kuantan. While realizing the threat brought upon by urbanization especially on the disruption of local food supply chain resulting in food insecurities, it is important to find an alternative solution towards a new century of sustainable agriculture practice to strengthen community preparedness, response and recovery in short and long-term impacts. The proposed hyperlocal movement intends to connect and cultivate the community towards a sustainable food system based on the 6 key components: collection, processing, cultivation, nutrient recovery, consumption and distribution. The development and fulfilment of these elements in the form of socio-economic programs should contribute to the adaptation of urban insecurity stresses thus strengthening the livelihood and survival of the vulnerable urban group.
Finding Opportunities | Contextual Analysis
Site Introduction
The proposed site is located within the Central Business District of Kuantan, the capital city of the state of Pahang on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. According to Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, with proclamation of Kuantan as a city, future development is expected to come with the formation of a community with a first-class mindset to achieve the vision of having Kuantan as a sustainable and livable city. As a result, it has led to increasing annual migration from rural to urban areas in Kuantan which contributed to a steady increase in the urban population. However, the rapidly changing climate has brought significant damage to the city in terms of extreme weather such as floods being the most disastrous, frequent and widespread. These floods are usually caused by flash floods, coastal floods or river floods. Urban flooding is often related to global climate change issues as most urban areas are the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions which eventually causes global warming. Based on the research by Safiah Yusmah et al. (2020), in understanding the vulnerability and resilience of the victims of flood in Kuantan, the results showed that food is being rated as the topmost vulnerabilities not only during natural disasters but also appeared to be their daily struggle. Therefore, the objective of this project is to build local future resilience among communities specifically towards food security.
Identifying Urban Issues & Opportunities
Despite being a beautiful city, one of its prevalent urban issues is major flood due to global climate change , often comes in the form of flash floods, coastal floods or river floods. The adverse effect that often-come hand in hand with it is the disruption of food supply chain resulting food in securities among the impacted communities which further worsening daily struggles of the vulnerable urban groups. Having said so, food insecurities has always been a pressuring problem especially on the shortage and lack of food supply globally which is often associated with poverty and natural disaster.
Food Waste/Loss Issue
Food waste issues has always been a pressuring problem especially on the shortage and lack of food supply globally which is often associated with poverty and natural disaster. It is usually cause by disturbance of any elements of the components to maintain food security such as availability of food supply, access to food, utilization of food, processing, and lastly stability. According to the waste composition in Malaysia, food waste stands the highest percentage of 44.5% among the other types of solid waste. Apparently, food waste itself contribute to 10% of greenhouse gas emission. According to reliable resource, on average, 17,000 tonnes of food waste daily are generated in Malaysia, whereby 4080 tonnes of them are edible food and is avoidable. These can easily feed up to 3 million people 3 meals a day. Therefore, it is important for people to be aware of their food that gets thrown away ends up in landfill which contributes to pollution by way of C02 emission.
Despite the abovementioned issues, there are several drivers of food loss and waste along every stage of the food supply chain which are identified as production and harvest waste, lack of transportation and distribution systems, inadequate storage facilities and techniques, inadequate processing and packaging, inefficiencies of wholesale and retail systems as most importantly food waste and discards along the supply chain. Therefore, reducing loss and waste throughout the food supply chain should be considered an effective solution to reduce the adverse impacts of agriculture.
Local Initiatives
Looking into the initiatives driven by the government and NGOs, they have been engaging communities and actively encouraging youths to venture into agriculture by introducing the ‘Young Agro-preneur Programme’, assisting young Agri-entrepreneurs in financing and capital to start a business by providing technical advice, consulting, training and other related skills. These initiatives are expected to bring greater intergenerational impacts on Malaysians towards a greater food security. Therefore, it is evident that youths play an important role in contributing to the local agriculture sector
Promoting Opportunities | Urban Manifesto
Circular Interdependence
While realizing the threat brought upon by food issues contributing to food insecurity, it is important to find an alternative solution towards a new century of sustainable agriculture practice. This project proposed to adapt the resilience theory through enhancing the relationship between community resilience and urban agriculture as a strategy for food and nutrition security while strengthening community preparedness, response and recovery in short and long-term impacts such as floods, economic shocks and pandemic outbreak. This concept is illustrated in the above diagram known as circular interdependence. According to Begum et al. (2011), resilience has the role of adapting the urban insecurity stresses by strengthening the livelihood and survival of the vulnerable urban group. This framework provides an overview in offering greater resilience for the society and economy in the face of future shocks through a circular economy ecosystem specifically to inform and address pressing issues related to the food supply chain. The framework is built upon 6 key components consisting of collection, processing, cultivation, nutrient recovery, consumption and distribution which are in line with the indicators and quality of a resilient system. These components will be integrated into the training centre to assist the community in acquiring necessary skills and knowledge in managing their daily needs. It is part of the initiatives to educate, promote and empower the community to be part of this hyperlocal movement, allowing them to understand and appreciate the food production and utilization process. As such, they will be able to apply those skill at home to be self-sustainable in times of need while also contributing to the well-being of environment.
Key Components:
1. Collection & Processing: Getting the community to engage
2. Cultivation: help in securing resources for future generations through food regeneration & collaborations to boost
sustainability of the framework.
3. Nutrient Recovery: consist of community-led activities to equip both the producers and consumers on the knowledge of local food resources particularly in addressing food surplus issues by giving it back to the community.
4. Consumption: ensuring everyone has equitable access to local food resources at all times by providing necessary facilities
5. Distribution: essentially support local food economies and create job opportunities for local workers, reducing food miles
The manifestation brought upon the urban intervention in building a resilient community chain to cultivate a catalyst for a more diversified urban agricultural practice. With balance mix of amenities, its strategic location calls for the potential for an urban solution (urban bridge) in resolving segregation issue amidst development through enhancement of existing & value added activities as well as improved infrastructural facilities to bridge the gap while strengthening communities ties. As a whole, the formation of a hyperlocal should reach out to local communities in encouraging and promoting a more sustainable agricultural practice, eventually achieving community resilience.
Urban Quality Criteria : Access & Linkage
To further enhance the functionality and sustainability of the resilient community chain, it is essential to emphasize on greater innovation and initiatives in contributing to the wellbeing of the community. With that being said, the urban quality criteria of comfort, protection and enjoyment along with its indicators were being adopted with the integration of enhanced transit corridors and elevated cyclist and pedestrian bridge to ensure that the people have access to all forms of transportation to always reach their destination in a save and conducive environment as well as to provide additional active street for new uses and play. It is also to connect segregated neighborhoods and communities as a result or urbanization. In that case, it could further promote the goal of achieving a sustainable hyperlocal movement towards a resilient community.
Program Study
In order to create network or social-economic programs. The proposed programs study for the training Centre is divided into 3 major components consist of:
1. Producing - cultivation activities in acquiring skills and knowledge
2. Consuming - user-oriented activities that engages the public
3. Decomposing - core function to collect and regenerate waste product
These proposed programs targeted at building social safety nets in ensuring the livelihood of vulnerable urban groups, especially among the local producers and consumers, keeping them away from the adverse impact of economic shocks and natural disaster. Thus forming a resilient ecosystem to sustain the functionalism of the training centre in the long run.
Sustaining Opportunities | Architecture of the City
The seedling hub does not only create a vibrant environment to reinforce the community sense of place but it’s expressive structure also reflects the intention to embrace inclusivity for the wellbeing of the communities. The key takeaway of this project lies in realizing the importance of cultivating relationships with one's locality in navigating our current ecological and economic crises. The strength of community enables us to help each other in ways we couldn’t as an individuals, therefore, it fits into the key goal in building resilience. It takes the strength of community to build long-term/lasting resilience in our daily lives.
