Over The River – Organic Food Center

Food is the source that sustains us. Humans have known this for millennia, yet we seem to have lost touch with this simple truth. most of our food is dependent upon industrial Fertilizers and pesticides, and We can’t expect to fuel our body and achieve optimal health by eating food, laced with toxic chemicals.
The use of pesticides in conventional agriculture is affecting not only the people who eat the treated crops, but also farm workers, people living near farms, wildlife, pollinators and the environment.
This is evident in the city of Jerash, which is one of the largest cities in Jordan in terms of agricultural production, which has left clear damage to agriculture and farmers in the city. Therefor it was a priority to find other agriculture methods that are safer for the enviroment and community which is Organic Agriculture. Organic Farming was developed as a response to the environmental harm caused by the use of chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers in conventional agriculture.
The design philosophy of the Organic Food Center is based on an appreciation of nature and a desire to maintain it, this is being achieved by bringing visitors to interact directly with nature in the site. Therefore, all elements of the project were considered in order to achieve this concept, which are:

1. Agricultural Research Center
Given that organic agriculture in Jordan is not widespread, it was necessary to allocate a research center specialized in organic agriculture and its studies, so that these researches can be applied to crops. Two types of laboratories have been allocated, one for the public so that they can participate and explore more about the concept of organic agriculture, and the other is isolated from the public and is dedicated to scientists and researchers in this type of agriculture.

2. Organic food restaurant
There are greenhouses dedicated to the restaurant, and the visitor can interact with nature through them, by involving him in the process of choosing his food from the ground himself in order to prepare his meal for him in the restaurant (in other words, directly from the ground and to his plate).

3. Organic Plants Exhibition
The exhibition is based on displaying different plants according to climatic zones, rather than traditional architectural zones. And environments suitable for their natural and organic growth. The concept is to get visitors to move around these different environments to integrate them and engage them with the idea of organic farming.

4. Agricultural crops
The agricultural crops in the project were divided into three categories. The first relates to the research laboratories to conduct studies on crops, and it is divided into agricultural beds and vertical farming, the second pertains to the restaurant to produce the required food inside its own greenhouses, and the third, which constitutes the largest area, is the crops produced for commercial purposes. The presence of such a project in Jerash will be a starting point for the concept of ​​organic farming throughout the Kingdom of Jordan , and it will be the best solution to reduce the negative effects of traditional agriculture. It will also help revitalize the site in terms of providing services to it and stimulating the tourism movement in the region.