Geraldine Ondrizek
Studio Art Coursework

Designed and Built by:
Ezra Bergmann
Lou Hewitt 

What is the site? How does the project respond to the site?

Zenger Farm is a teaching community farm seeking to bring sustainable, healthy food to their diverse community in Southeast Portland. Our project, the creation of two octagonal, raised-beds with detachable and openable egg-shaped cold frame tops, responds to a direct need from Zenger Farm to be able to grow starts during the winter. This helps the farm maximize the growing season and ensures that the farm can be used all year-round. Additionally, the rounded top shell design of the cold frames mimics the pattern from the willow dome that is nearby in the garden.

What did your client/users need?

Zenger Farm was looking for a cold frame greenhouse that is set at a height for children to be able to see and work inside, and the final product would sit in the Children’s Garden at the bottom of the hill. The structure also needed to be weatherproof and able to protect plants from snow and wind.

How did you go about designing for their needs?

To address these needs, we designed a sturdy base with a large circumference to allow for many bodies to gather around the raised bed, and a tall frame to make sure that all sizes of bodies could access the raised bed when the cold frame is attached. We also made sure to construct the cold frame with a side that opens like an accordion, to ensure that people working in the beds are able to reach inside and work with the plants without the cold frame losing the heat trapped inside.  

What materials and forms did you use? Did you consider durability? Ecology? 

For the octagonal frame we used cedar and reinforced with brackets to ensure the structure lasts for as long as possible (as opposed to rotting and breaking quickly). For the cold frame we used aluminum rods because they are light, easy to move, and durable. The plastic that will sit on the cold frame comes from Zenger, and this is a method they use throughout the farm to trap heat that is cheap and durable. 

What building methods did you use? Are these new to you?

We used a variety of tools and techniques; power drills, table saw, chop saw, metal drill, and all of them were new to Lou. We cut the wood for the bed at a specific angle so that when drilled together a complete closed octagon is made. Another method used was metal bending, used to create the proper curvature for the cold frame shell.  

Who will use this and did you ask them about the design?

Our contact at Zenger farm was Ebony, who was incredibly helpful and also will be one of the main people using our cold frame raised beds. She gave us advice about the design, particularly for the cold frame door, that made us feel confident in the design actually being useful for the farm. 

How did your team work together?

We worked well together and were able to solve the many creative problems we ran into along the way. Delegating tasks for construction played out seamlessly, and the both of us learned a lot about woodworking and building in general just by discussing obstacles with one another. Lou now has a better appreciation of country music, and both of us were able to practice our british accents a lot throughout the process.

How does this project relate to our bigger city issues and what does it contribute?

Our project directly responds to a need for low-income communities to have access to fresh food, and the cold frame will ensure that more produce can be given to people in Southeast Portland by Zenger. Along with that our structure upholds a landscape architecture approach by building and designing in collaboration with the already existing patterns at the site. An approach that favors and hopefully influences more mindful designs for sites within the area.