Insects are an essential component or our ecosystem and their natural evolution serves as a fascinating source not only of material inspiration, as we’ve seen this week in the work of Marlene Huissoud, but potentially also a solution to our global food crisis. The Cricket shelter is a new project in Brooklyn, NY, with an entire facade dedicated to farming crickets for human consumption as part of meeting our world’s growing food distribution problem. .

Designed by Terreform ONE with Mitchell Joachim as Principal Investigaor, Cricket Shelter is a is a dual-purpose shelter and modular insect farm bounded into one structure. According to it’s designers, it is intended for the impending food crisis, where people will need access to good sources of alternative protein, as raising livestock is not possible at our current rate of consumption and resource extraction. The United Nations has mandated insect sourced protein is a major component to solving global food distribution problems. This impacts the diets of all peoples across the globe.

Structurally, the shelter can be minimized into easily manufactured and replicable elements such as a simple CNC plywood archway with linked off-the-shelf plastic containers as infill surface. The current version of the structure is more customized to account for solar orientation, airflow and varied spatial programs internally.

A computational model was used to parametrically align all of the individual containers to match the archway splines. Each pre-ordered container was modified to add ventilation screens, flexible insect sacks, locally controlled louvers, and permeable feeder ports with rotating locking mechanisms. The wind quill ventilation component magnifies the sound of cricket chirping in columns of vibrating air.

The aim of the architectural scheme is to ultimately develop sustainable food distribution methods through compact architecture as part of an overall multi-pronged strategy for international hunger solutions and sustainable food distribution.

Cricket Burgers in America?

. Introducing crickets into the modern American/ European diet is not a simple task, but there is precedent. For example, a few decades ago American’s did not wish to eat raw fish. Yet positive change materialized after sushi was introduced on a culturally refined and hygienic level.

These designers argue the the same kind of approach needs to be embedded in the cultivation of crickets to achieve the cleanliness, quality, and purity of the farm-to-table system.  Over two billion people eat insects every day; it’s time to reintroduce them into the diets of the remaining population they say.

Credits:

Project: Cricket Shelter – Modular Insect Farm
Location: Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York
Date completed: April 2016
Credits: Terreform ONE, Mitchell Joachim (Principal Investigator)
Maria Aiolova, Felipe Molina, Matthew Tarpley, Melanie Fessel, Jiachen Xu, Lissette Olivares, Cheto Castellano, Shandor Hassan, Christian Hamrick, Ivan Fuentealba, Sung Moon, Kamila Varela, Yucel Guven, Chloe Byrne, Miguel Lantigua-Inoa
Sponsor: Art Works for Change
Photos: Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE