The LaFarm Functional Art project is a community-centered conceptual design project intended to study the feasibility of implementing a functional art piece in LaFarm’s greenhouse at Lafayette College. The project focuses on configuring a conceptual design accompanied by an analysis of the improvements of greenhouse operations at LaFarm through the addition of a functional art piece. LaFarm is a community-centered sustainability initiative intended to bridge the gap between education, community engagement, and food & agriculture. The farm serves the larger community in a plethora of ways: food production services for Lafayette College dining halls, community garden space for Easton residents, student engagement through academic research and volunteers, as well as community engagement for food justice initiatives. The greenhouse is an integral part of LaFarm’s operations and contributes to its larger mission. The space acts as an additional farming location with ideal climate conditions and technologies such as the heating and cooling system, the temperature controller, and the rain & wind sensors, allowing for the extension of the farm’s productive season and offering further educational opportunities throughout the academic year.
Community members frequent LaFarm because of their interest in agriculture, their role as student workers/volunteers, or solely because it makes them happy. The greenhouse space at LaFarm could greatly benefit from additional factors that boost happiness, joy, and engagement. Various scholars have studied the role that art plays in generating joyful feelings within communities. Visually appealing or cute art and design “can brighten our daily lives by bringing feelings of joy, comfort, and healing to our experiences” (Fan et al. 2023). This project draws from proven research that art has the power to create harmony and improve mental health to argue for the importance and necessity of a functional art piece at LaFarm. Additionally, key stakeholders were consulted and all have expressed interest in incorporating art into the operations of LaFarm. The emotional and mental benefit of art coupled with functionality will serve to not only improve the well-being of LaFarm’s community but will simultaneously contribute to increased operations and production in the greenhouse.
This project focuses on devising a concise study that can be applied to future community-centered problem-solving courses at Lafayette College. There have been a wide array of student-led projects on LaFarm, many of which have not been implemented because of various factors (timing, stakeholder interest, expertise, etc…). As a result, student projects and LaFarm often share a one-sided relationship that mostly benefits student learning and categorizes LaFarm solely as a research subject rather than a community space that can benefit from implementable research. Due to this fragile relationship, this project will focus on serving as the foundational building block that future courses can leverage to facilitate the physical implementation of a functional art piece in LaFarm’s greenhouse. This project will highlight crucial findings and outline a step-by-step implementation process that will assist future functional art projects at LaFarm.
Functionality has been defined in this project as an apparatus for increased productivity at LaFarm both economically and socially. While a LaFarm 2021 annual report noted an increase in productivity both in terms of crop production and community engagement, general challenges and limitations are still present within LaFarm operations. The greenhouse has various functional issues that can be attributed to its construction model. LaFarm head farmer Josh Parr pointed out that the greenhouse construction as an indoor space resulted in design flaws such as unpitched floors and improperly placed drains that lead to puddles of water. The operations in the greenhouse and the larger farm are also hindered by limited practicality such as organizational logistics and mobility of the layout. Since the farm is shared with various other community garden farmers, the space needs to be both functional and organized. A functional art piece could address these issues via tool storage options or through easier-to-use plant bed risers. Through this report, we will discuss both options before presenting our final designs for tool storage. Due to the various challenges regarding functionality at LaFarm greenhouse, the three main questions that arise and that this project intends to address are:
What are the opportunities for functional art in the context of LaFarm?
How can functional art advance the purpose of community gardens?
How can functional art contribute to the technical, economic, and social functions of the LaFarm greenhouse?