New Found Land I:
A Proposal for a Rooftop Farm for The Yokohama Museum of Art

Introduction:

“Japan, which has limited natural resources, imports around 60% of the food it consumes – a higher rate than any other rich country. Public concerns have mounted about tainted food, particularly produce imported from China. In the past year, Japanese people have fallen ill from eating Chinese frozen dumplings and green beans laced with pesticides.”

-Rooftop farmers help cool down Tokyo, Harumi Ozawa, Agence France-Presse, Nov 5, 2008

Industrialized food production is something we previously have taken for granted. We seldom consider where an egg comes from, nor do we often contemplate how long it takes to grow an onion. Similarly in an art museum, one never really sees art in production; it merely appears, on the wall or in a pristine white room, for the convenient consumption of viewers. In both cases, the general public’s only engagement is with the final product, never the messy process. New Found Land I is a project that refocuses attention on the production process and offers visitors an alternative agrarian experience to what is expected from an art museum in the center of an urban metropolis.

The organic farm is a literal manifestation of the art museum’s role as a place that “nourishes” the mental and spiritual health of a community. And just as the artworks in the museum act as windows into other worlds, the rooftop farm too is an alternate utopian vision, a parallel universe that is physically mapped onto the architectural footprint of a major cultural institution.

The museum/farm operates on several levels simultaneously: a place to celebrate creativity and culture, a gathering place for members of the community and a center for the production of food. All of these elements together build a symbiotic relationship where the vitality of one affects the robustness of the others. The aim is to cultivate all of these elements together in New Found Land I.