Ella Craig
Extract
Environmental Design
2026
This thesis transforms the site of the demolished Banting Institute into an urban ecosystem where the history of insulin and diabetes care merges with current day community needs. Extract brings together the university and the wider city community and invites people to observe, participate, and learn from the cycles of food growth that sustain metabolic wellbeing. Through indoor gardens, kitchens, classrooms, food technology labs, and shared spaces of cultivation, the design dismantles barriers to food security and reframes Type 2 diabetes prevention as an accessible, intergenerational practice. In doing so, 100 College Street becomes not only a place of remembrance, but a living, growing core of nourishment, knowledge, and care.
“The Banting Institute was an educational building named after Dr Banting and his work in the diabetes field and creation of Insulin. During his time, diabetes was an immune condition of the body not producing enough insulin. Since then, industrialization has allowed for the creation of Type 2 diabetes which is linked to the preservatives of the highly manufactured foods and prevalence is most common in the lowest socio-economic groups.To honour Dr Bantings legacy, and bring his work into todays environment, Extract designs a space dedicated to learning, participating in cycles of food growth and consumption. The design creates a core for the university and wider community which dismantles barriers to food security and reframes type 2 diabetes care as an accessible, routine practice through indoor farming, educational kitchens, food technology labs, and classrooms.The design is broken into three main components, functional, core, and organic spaces.The functional core which is arranged in the floor plans following the blueprint of the demolished Banting Institute. These spaces include educational kitchens, food technology labs, classrooms to learn how to plant, care for, and grow your own crops. The core of the building is extracted creating a light well which capitalizes on the drawing the natural lighting in the dense urban environment down into the building. The concept for the design is core, modelled on an apple core vertically sliced, each floor plate follows a slice of the apple to get its form, creating a stacked series of organic forms which shift each floor plate into a dynamic, undulating space. These organic forms house the farming systems with the glass of south facade of the building exposes the indoor farming to help reconnect the community with the process of food growth and creates an education display of food production and sustainable practices.As a system, Extract functions as a community-oriented space which removes barriers to food security by constantly providing quality food. The farming systems grow the ingredients needed to run the educational kitchens and food technology labs, furthermore, they create an accessible, high quality food source for the community which allows those in low socio-economic groups to access fresh and nutritious foods. ”