Objective: Given a 200,000 sqft lot with 86,000 sqft of food storage, create a Foodbank facility in South Central Los Angeles that focuses on sustainability and energy performance.

Based on the common alliteration of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” this structure uses a circular vertical garden trellis system that acts as its center of energy and food production. With photovoltaic panels to capture sunlight on the ceiling of the trellis system, the circular vertical garden effectively reducess any additional energy use and allows for passive cooling through the vegetation and shading devices.

An average of 2/3 of the materials utilized within the construction of the building are either recylced or composted from nearby abandoned or unused warehouse sites. This concept takes and reuses the soil and earth from multiple locations and mixes them with concrete, creating different color strips of earth-concrete as rammed earth panels. Finally, by taking recycled warehouse metals and steel from other sites and using them in facade elements, this concept effectively showcases a sustainable and energy-focused design.