What is an agrihood? It is an organized community that integrates sustainable agriculture into a neighborhood. This project, “The Garden”, takes the agrihood concept and combines a transitional housing component specifically to benefit the reintegration of the many houseless individuals that currently occupy Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles.

The agrihood site is a part of the Central Alameda Neighborhood which currently sits in a food desert. The site divides a low-income residential neighborhood to the west and an industrial district to the east.

The design for this project relies on the concepts of holistic healing, socialization, and sustainable design. Users will enter the site where they will be greeted by the entrance to the community center. The intent of the community center is to provide any additional resources to residents to help them with the transition of leaving the streets. The idea is that this site would work alongside city resources to produce the best holistic experience, while also encouraging residents to increase their levels of socialization.

Living Pods are the residential areas that utilize refurbished shipping containers as apartments. The versatile landscape of each pod creates an interesting contrast between semi-private and public space. Open lawn, intimate seating, and the occasional outdoor classroom are designed to encourage residents to engage without any pressure.

The working farm that is on site is designed to harvest in-season fruits and vegetables year-round relying on a plant schedule that is modeled after different sustainable farming techniques. This helps to generate partnerships and provide opportunity on site for residents to develop skills.

In conclusion, “The Garden” was designed specifically for Los Angeles, but with the intent to be showcased as a sustainable model for how we might think of transitional housing and urban sustainable food production in the near future.