Diagramming Nodes

Nodes of sustainable growth and promotion of eating local/ways of interacting with the public/teaching and learning on display

(From left to right)

1. The first node: growth of vegetable and fruits. Learn what is in season. Doubles as a farmers market of sorts, where people can trade from their own gardens, buy from ours. The gravity of the adjacent Old Exchange building is preserved; no other architecture competes.

Open, Community, Transport

Senses and food: the vibrant colors of vegetables, the smell of fresh soil, the texture of hands-on trade

2. Central to the site: the cultivation of herbs and spices. This node is extremely vertical. Herbs and spices grow up and down the narrow space, stretching into the confines of the building and drawing the students outward to this central area of sustainable growth. The smells funnel through the space into the noses of curious pedestrians; they enter, eat, and learn but rarely see.

Private, Levels, Horizontal to Vertical Shift

Senses and food: Perhaps the most important of all, smell.

3. On the far edge of the site: the 'harvesting' of fish and sea food, essential to low-country cooking. This node is sunken down in an area of the site that is given entirely for the public. It functions to link the school to the park/bay through its location on the site--the furthest point east towards the water. Not entirely visible from the far east street/park, this area only completely reveals itself to pedestrians on the middle road. Interaction between students and Charleston locals, in a different way than the first node.

Connect, Path, Below

Senses and food: the smell of fish, the sound of moving water, the [hidden] sight--peering down into this sustainable node