04 → Sagwa
CONTEXT:
Academic Data Visualization Project with Joyce Lee, MFA
Fall 2023
This project was developed as a part of a core studio class in fulfillmnet of the Master’s in Design Engineering Degree at Harvard. As a group, we were propmpted to build a data visualization regarding a specific future of work in 2040.
SKILLS DEVELOPED:
UX Design, Data Analysis, Data Visualizaiton
ABOUT:
SAGWA is a scenario modeler that imagines a future in which our food system can be more participatory and resilient. If agriculture were more localized and accessible, with more urban residents sharing in community gardens and farms, how might we “insource” agricultural labor to feed the city and connect people more directly with their food sources?
In order to visualize this alternative future, we used the most populous city in America as an example: New York City. We picked 10 crops that would be suitable for urban farming, and found datasets that included current urban gardens in the city as well as city-owned sites deemed suitable for urban gardens. We used consumption data for these crops, the amount of land and labor that went into the growth, and the increased yields and costs from hydroponic and aeroponic farming that could result from optimizing these urban gardens. Ultimately, we combined all this data into an interactive tool to show the impact that urban farming could have in the largest city in America
We created SAGWA to empower both urban planners and residents themselves to visualize the impact urban agriculture can have on food sustainability, and plan community gardens accordingly towards a more sustainable food future.
A MACRO LEVEL OVERVIEW:
The opening view of SAGWA showed the city on the right hand side, and the consumption of the 10 crops suitable for urban farming. The right side is a 3D population density map, with the height of each section representing the population of a given census block. We also added a toggle to view the urban gardens at a city level. On the left, we displayed the consumption of each crop in pounds, and the total amount of labor and land it took to grow for this consumption. The goal was of this view was to show not only how much food it takes to feed the city, but also how much went into growing that food.
IMAGINING A NEW FUTURE:
At the neighborhood level, the user could then explore within a particular neighborhood the consumption of each of these crops and the land and labor. The user could also adjust the diet of that particular neighborhood to see how they might optimize a diet for their land and labor usage. From here, the user could then select all of the urban gardens within a particular neighborhood, pick what crops they wanted to grow, select what kind of characteristics of the farm (hydroponic, aeroponic, number of vertical tiers, etc.). Going back to neighborhood level, the user could then see the impact these farms would have both in terms of land and labor saved, as well as dollars saved for residents.