Manufacturing Nature: A Case Study in the Construction of a Natural Pool and Vertical Gray Water Filtration and Farming Systems

• In Event: Greening Infrastructure Studies

Abstract

This undergraduate presentation investigates the utilization of controlled growing environments and sustainable growing systems in light of changing notions regarding relationships between humans and nature. The presentation interrogates the notion of “nature” in light of recent pushes to bring natural features back into urban environments. Yet, in a very real sense, these natural features must be manufactured as they are integrated into unnatural environments. Such installments, which seek to bring nature back to the manufactured urban environment, challenge categories such as natural and unnatural, urban and wild, and manufactured and organic. In particular, the presentation analyzes and interrogates these notions using the examples of vertical farming and natural swimming pools. We present our analysis of two empirical examples in which distinctions and blurrings of natural/controlled/and manufactured are being made in real-time. We introduce two case studies, one in developing a natural swimming pool as part of an undergraduate capstone project, and the other focused on using gray water for vertical farming initiatives. In particular, we employ an auto-ethnographic approach to analyze the ways in which our teams delineate boundaries between the natural and “man” made. We chronicle the experiences of the capstone teams as they engage in a process of boundary making - we analyze the teams’ dialogues as they struggle with distinguishing what makes a natural swimming pool different from a “normal” swimming pool, what distinguishes vertical farming initiatives from traditional farming, as the distinction between natural and manufactured becomes increasingly blurry.

Authors

• Dorothy Lynn Caserta, James Madison University

• Raven Moon Brubach, James Madison University