In the last meeting, we identified four areas to consider in our planning: community gardens, urban green space, participatory design, and road salt alternatives. In today’s meeting, we chose the primary focus: a year-round community garden that filters water and provides ecosystem and remediation services. We also talked about actively involving the community members in the design process.
In the discussion, we brainstormed around the idea of community gardens, plant-based water filtration and remediation systems, and participatory design. We also noted some of the underlying problems and the questions we have to address:
- “How to heat sustainably?”
- “How to indicate that the filtered water is safe for consumption?”
- “Is it feasible?”
- “Can we create a sustainable ventilation system?”
- “How to make it a ‘pop-up’ design applicable to many locations?”
To learn more about this area and clear some of our doubts, we will speak with the director of the UMN Conservatory and Botanical Collection about the newly constructed greenhouse. We are excited to do more research around this idea and find a specific area to implement the concept.
Illustration by Rose Lam