Plant-Based Decker Lake
A new urban development shifting the logic of agriculture into the heart of urban living and delicately bringing urban development to a currently low-density area.
Spring 2021
Collaborator: Omar McClung
The use of animal agriculture as an essential part of the American diet is having catastrophic effects on both the Earth’s climate and the quality of our communities. As the area of East Austin surrounding Decker Lake Park is set to experience unprecedented growth and development with the influx of new tech industry manufacturers to the area, a more sustainable model for urban living is required for this presently low density, low income agricultural area.
This proposal, Plant-Based Decker Lake, utilizes the park as an exemplary prototype for a new distinctly American “Landscape City.” A broad pedestrian and transit-focused boulevard surrounds the lake, encasing a vast swath of land programmed for recreation, integrated agriculture and education, and ecological preservation. A series of fifteen minute cities surround the core loop, their positions dictated by the area’s flood plains, integrated again with robust transit and walkable, bikeable greenbelt roads.
Medium density housing blocks are comprised of community agricultural production structures and combine both communal and private outdoor spaces within their fabric. This new city strategically showcases plant-based agricultural experiences woven into the fabric of its residents’ daily lives; this is in order to shift the logic of agriculture into the heart of urban living, and to delicately bring urban development to a currently low-density area.
