{"id":15156,"date":"2012-12-03T08:45:28","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T14:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=15156"},"modified":"2012-12-03T08:45:28","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T14:45:28","slug":"the-biocellar-urban-farming-moves-underground-in-cleveland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-biocellar-urban-farming-moves-underground-in-cleveland\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biocellar: Urban Farming Moves Underground in Cleveland"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n Just over a month ago, we took a look at Chateau Hough<\/a>, an urban vineyard in one of Cleveland, Ohio’s most distressed neighborhoods. \u00a0The idea of using urban agriculture<\/a> as the means for revitalizing a community is pretty innovative in and of itself, but activist and developer Mansfield Frazier has plans for a first-ever addition to the vineyards: a biocellar. We mentioned this in passing in the first post, but as the biocellar concept<\/a> has received more attention recently, I got intrigued by this plan to turn blighted houses into underground greenhouses.<\/p>\n That, essentially, sums up the idea: abandoned houses that are past any hope of renovation are demolished, but the basements are kept intact. With some additional support and a greenhouse-type structure built over the basement, an urban farmer\/gardener now has a space that maintains constant temperature appropriate for growing crops… or even maintaining small ecosystems.<\/p>\n The term was first coined by permaculture designer (and Clevelander)\u00a0Jean Loria, who shared the idea with the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative<\/a> at nearby Kent State University. After several years of design work, they’re ready to build one… and will do so at Chateau Hough. Listen to Frazier’s descriptions of their plans:<\/p>\n