AGRI-TECTURE:

ninaprettyballerina: Vertical Farm Proposal Is Woven Into The...

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:51:18 -0400

Vertical Farm Proposal Is Woven Into The Fabric Of The City

“Michelle Cheng, a graduate of the Ryerson University School of Interior Design, has designed a vertical farm for her thesis. She didn’t place it at the waterfront or in the theater district, she put it in the middle of a transitioning residential area with a large social housing component, full of people who need affordable fresh food.”

more: treehugger

image: Michelle Cheng

A rooftop fish farm for every family?

Tue, 15 May 2012 21:32:00 -0400

A rooftop fish farm for every family?:

unexpectedtech:

It may look nothing more than an oddly shaped greenhouse, but the “Globe (hedron)”, a collaboration by food futurists Urban Farmers AG and and designer Antonio Scarponi of Conceptual Devices, is a concept for a self-contained rooftop aquaponics dome that its designers hope will help address global food security. The company is seeking funding to turn the concept into a prototype.

Aquaponics is a marriage of aquaculture (farming aquatic animals, like fish or prawns) and hydroponics (growing plants in water). Effluents from fish (and their food) accumulate in the water. When channeled to plants these are consumed as nutrients, purifying the water in the process before it becomes toxic to the fish. In theFishy Farm, we saw the principle applied to fish tanks, and though obviously not aquaponic, the veggie-roof chicken coop works on a similar symbiotic idea.

Urban Farmers has set up a crowd funding page on Kickstarter-alike IndieGoGo, seeking US$15,000 to turn the idea into a prototype. According to the page the rooftop domes would have skeletons made from renewable materials (bamboo is proposed). Perhaps the biggest surprise on the page is the claim that a single Globe could feed a family of four year-round, providing it with all the fish, vegetables and herbs it needs. Unrealistic? It sounds a very optimistic estimate at any rate.

Ultra-Cool Hydroponic Furniture at Milan Furniture Week:

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:46:23 -0400

I must apologize for being MIA for the past few weeks. I had to go to Milan for work and now am in the midst of final exams. Agritecture is still growing though and over the summer you should all expect a site revamp. Stay tuned!

For now, here are some images from an ultra-cool set of hydroponic furniture designed by UNIT 3. These guys are really doing an amazing job of pushing the envelope of what can be done with hydroponics and furniture. The tables/desks are made of aluminum and all use closed loop aquaponic systems. A full report on this design group will come soon!

Desk (Above and Below)

Dinning Table (Above and Below)

Check out this cool table from AeroFarms that compares...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:31:16 -0400

Check out this cool table from AeroFarms that compares traditional, greenhouse, and aeroponic farming. (Click on image for High Res)

Agritecture Can Revitalize Industrial Brownfield Sites:

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:25:00 -0400

This next concept was the Holcim Awards “Next Generation” 1st prize winner. The project is aimed at the adaptive re-use of an industrial site for urban agriculture in Pretoria South Africa. The images for these are large so please click on them to get a better resolution. The detailing on the images are not to be missed so don’t forget to check out our high res image gallery.

Description of the project:

The Vertical Agriculture at the Old Pretoria West Power Station project transforms a soon to be decommissioned coal bunker of a power station into a vertical hydroponic garden, thereby inverting the attributes of a former polluting facility into a purifying element that continues to be a mechanism for supply of the city’s needs. Grey- and rain-water is used to grow food in close proximity to the urban consumer. Spin-offs become resources: gas and biomass for energy production in addition compost and clean water. To establish the necessary framework for the transposed use, the crude existing structure hosts bamboo construction, exploring its limits in multi-floor commercial application. Moreover qualitative spaces are created in the former barren area upgrading the built environment; the intended market at the base forms a place of social exchange. Urban agriculture knowledge is transferred to the local community and the adaptive reuse generates numerous products (food, compost, gas, clean water) and provides a strong return on investment.

Source

What I like about this project is that it uses a brownfield industrial site and adds a light bamboo structure that produces food, supported by energy outputs from the factory attached. Building-integrated agriculture does not need to be vertical or overly complex, it can be composed of light materials like bamboo and can be free standing like the Spiral Garden or an attachment to an existing building like the Clepsydra Urban Farm. I admire the innovation of this project as it has a clear plan about how to improve the contribution and energy transfer of an old industrial site using Agritecture. This is a very smart project with many design elements to learn from. I highly recommend checking out the images and the site.

High Res Image Gallery

EQUINOX - FARMING ON SHIPS INSTEAD OF LAND: The world has used...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:50:00 -0400

EQUINOX - FARMING ON SHIPS INSTEAD OF LAND:

The world has used up 70-80% of land that can be used for traditional farming while our population continues to grow rapidly. What can be done? Well, we can grow food in controlled environments improving efficiency and place them on rooftops or integrate them into buildings. We can also practice more urban agriculture and promote at home food production with smart design. This post introduces a new idea: farming our food on ships that are zero-net energy and designed as self supporting systems. Check out this images of the EQUINOX farming ships. Pretty darn cool!

The design group has conceptualized a self-sufficient, carbon neutral floating offshore farming platform – the Equinox. The Equinox is intended to serve coastal regions with an emphasis on areas with dense population lacking adequate land for food production. The Equinox runs on an electrical propulsion system that is fueled by renewable energy collected by the platform’s onboard solar and wind generators.

The platform also harvests rainwater and desalinates seawater for use within the floating farm. Premium crops are to be grown with the Equinox using hydroponic methods. The greenhouse nurtures crops and protects them from environmental exposure at sea. The platform also has the ability to anchor at the most suitable food growing locations at sea, and after the produce is ready to be harvested, the platform can come back at the shore.

From Future Transportation

This particular vertical farming project may not be particularly...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:23:00 -0400

This particular vertical farming project may not be particularly pleasing to the eye, but it does implement some incredibly smart and sensible design solutions worthy of attention. The Newark Vertical Farm integrates stacked greenhouse farms into the structure in a way that uses the optimal south sunlight to generate heat in the greenhouse and then uses that heat for the north facing (cooler) side of the building. I think that the future of sustainable architecture is integrating the benefits of greenhouse systems in order to improve energy and water efficiency. This is what AGRITECTURE is all about!

The most interesting images here are those at the end of this post that are diagrams of the water use and energy transfer aspects of the building (click on them for larger, higher quality images). This case is an excellent example of how building-integrated agriculture can prove to work for the building to reduce its energy and water use, as well as improve its self-reliance.

The Newark Vertical Farm represents not only the next generation for Urban Agriculture and Vertical Farming but also an approach to design which incorporates integrated and overlapping sustainable design features. More than just a Vertical Farm, it is a research and development program for sustainable design in an urban context. It is an open system designed to attract any number of features for both demonstration and research into the best ideas for sustainable design of our cities. Both a demonstration project and a laboratory, NVF is envisioned to be a flexible armature for uses relating to vertical farming, urban agriculture, sustainable design and energy efficiency. The main building contains the vertical greenhouse, and research labs separated by a full height atrium for light and ventilation. The greenhouse space contains high intensity soilless growing systems and is designed to be flexible and adaptable. The ground floor showcases a demonstration green house for public interaction while the upper floors serve as an agricultural laboratory. The purpose of the building is to develop, test, and educate with the ultimate goal of a commercially viable building type.

Source: The Vertical Farming Blog

On the left of the above image you can see the greenhouse structures on the south face. In the middle is an atrium and common area than is uses to gather and transfer heat to the north side occupancy area which you can see the walkway for on the right.

The above image is a detailed explanation of how the water is used in the building. Click on the image for a larger version.

The above image details the energy system of the structure. Notice how heat is transfer from the warm south side to the north side with the atrium within serving the important purpose of releasing excess heat. For a larger version please click on the image.

Beautiful.

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:42:00 -0400

Beautiful.

This is a fantastic video that you should watch! It introduces...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:38:01 -0500

This is a fantastic video that you should watch! It introduces eco-labratory, a building that embodies AGRITECTURE and details all of the main concepts of vertical hydroponic farming in a clear and straightforward way. This is a great place to start.

More about eco-labratory

"Farm of the Future" Opens to the Public - Vertical Strawberry Farm

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:43:00 -0500

"Farm of the Future" Opens to the Public - Vertical Strawberry Farm:

Traditional farmers are turning to vertical hydroponics to improve their farms:

Farm of the future? Not sure that I would call this project that exactly but it does employ aspects of the future of farming business. As water becomes more scarce more farmers will be buying the systems described in this post: hydroponic modular towers that save water and protect the crops. This article is worth reading if you want to learn more about the systems that make this California farm reduce its impact on the environment and make it profitable.

I admit that these images leave something to be desired but this article does tell us that many industries and inventors are joining in the development of growing our food in more efficient ways.

Temecula Valley Strawberry Farms, Southern California’s first commercial hydroponic urban vertical farm, partners with EnviroIngenuity to promote new production techniques. On Saturday, March 17, 2012, the public will experience the future of farming at the grand opening of Temecula Valley Strawberry Farms, Southern California’s first hydroponic vertical strawberry farm. More than 11,250 Verti-Gro “towers” produce large sweet strawberries, using less than 85 percent of the water required in traditional row production.

“People no longer have to visit the Epcot Center to see the future of farming,” said Fietz, Sr. “I’ve been in the strawberry industry for 40 years and water and pesticides have always been huge issues. Add in lots of manual labor and it’s tough to make a dime at the end of the day. Since my son, Kenny, was willing to take the reins, I helped him implement this highly efficient system that does away with lots of extra expense and reduces the use of pesticides.”

Source

Here are some images of a concept vertical farm intended for...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:09:25 -0500

Here are some images of a concept vertical farm intended for London. It’s great to see more architects trying to find ways to integrate food production into residential structures but there are still many questions that need to be answered before ideas like this project can become a reality. In residential structures, one of the main challenges is going to be ensuring that either all of the residents participate in the food production and harvesting of the crops in their building themselves, or hire workers to do it. Either way, the costs and the organizational systems that are required for a project like this have not evolved yet. Nevertheless, I do like the design and its great to read about the intentions of the architects to build a self-sufficient structure.

The plant covered honeycomb tower combines a vertical farm and residential building with a mini self-sufficient eco-system. The London Tower Farm stores roof captures rainwater for hydroponic cultivation, showers and toilets. It also generates renewable energy from wind-turbines and solar power, and grows food for its residents in the building’s inner core.

Source

NEWS! SUPERMARKET WITH ROOFTOP GREENHOUSE APPROVED IN BROOKLYN:...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:20:51 -0500

NEWS! SUPERMARKET WITH ROOFTOP GREENHOUSE APPROVED IN BROOKLYN: TO BE COMPLETED IN 2013.

Whole foods has received a unanimous yes to building their new supermarket in Brooklyn. The project has been delayed for some time but it is an exciting new development that it has been passed through and construction will begin soon and it will be finished in late 2013. The market will feature electric car plug ins, solar panels, and…(drum roll please) a rooftop hydroponic farm! The farm was designed and will be managed by the people at BrightFarms.

This is great news and a big step forward for bringing Agritecture into the lives of Brooklyn residents. We all look forward to seeing how the project progresses and even more, we look forward to seeing how shoppers respond to buying fresh produce grown on the rooftop of their market once it opens in 2013.

Watch the video report from NY1

While I do not agree with everything discussed in the above...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:05:53 -0500

While I do not agree with everything discussed in the above video (especially the part about the use of GMO in vertical farms) I did find it an interesting overview of some of the benefits and technologies of vertical farming. I think that more should be done to conceptualize how vertical farms can be integrated into our buildings as opposed to being structures on our own. We need more realistic and timely Agritecture solutions that can be applied to the built environment today. By integrating agriculture into buildings it is possible to use the hydroponic food production systems to increase insulation to the structure and to reuse water.

What do you think of the potential use of vertical farms to produce GMO foods?

More people are considering hydroponic greenhouse farming...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:37:38 -0500

More people are considering hydroponic greenhouse farming throughout the USA. This one from Arizona:

Company Purpose: To provide delectable and tasty produce to clients and customers without pesticides and less impact to the environment at a lower price than competitors.

The Problem: Today’s Arizona farming wastes huge amounts of water and land growing crops that are covered in pesticides, can only grow in certain times of the year, and have long shipping times because most of our crops come from California. By the time the produce reaches the customer, it is almost 3 weeks old!

The Idea: Vertical farming inside a warehouse using multiple levels to grow different crops year round. We would use indoor lighting, hydroponics, ventilation, nutrients, and solar panels. Building upwards would let us be able grow different types of crops and many acres of crops on a small amount of real-estate. We would place crops that don’t need a lot of light (like mushrooms) at the bottom of the farm and ones that need more light at the top which would help us conserve energy.

Read More

NEWS: Agritecture is taking off in NYC!

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:06:23 -0500

Three companies that all build rooftop farms: BrightFarms, Gotham Greens, and Brooklyn Grange are all competing for rooftop space in the nearby boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn according to a recent article on nydailynews.com.

What does this mean?

Urban farming is becoming an increasingly feasible business endeavor for small and medium businesses. While the systems that these companies use are relatively simple and modest (in comparison to the vertical farming) they are nevertheless making a huge impact by providing fresh local food to NYC. In fact, I would argue that the reason for their success is that they approach building-integrated agriculture in a sensible way by focusing on NYC and sticking to single floor BIA solutions. This is saving them tons of money and energy that would otherwise be needed for artificial lighting.

I believe that the success and growth of these companies will pave the way for more businesses, individuals, nations and municipalities to invest in Agritecture. The news of the growth of these companies and the competition between them is a signal that we are entering a new stage of the business of building-integrated agriculture.

Read all about it!

A growing number of commercial farms housed several stories high throughout the city are producing crops year-round — in many cases without even using dirt.

Several city farms are looking for more rooftop space to grow their local food businesses. And swaths of Queens and Brooklyn with large expanses of industrial rooftops are prime candidates for the urban agriculture expansion.

But “there are thousands of acres of rooftop space in New York City potentially suitable for agriculture — with more than 1,000 acres in Queens,” he said.

The Brooklyn Grange, a 40,000-square-foot organic farm that sits on top of the Standard Motor Products building in Long Island City, Queens, plans to open a new rooftop operation each year over the next five years.

The group is set to open a 45,000-square-foot farm in the Brooklyn Navy Yard this spring.

Several rooftop greenhouse operations, such as Gotham Greens and BrightFarms, are also looking for elevated space.

Gotham Greens, a 15,000-square-foot, hydroponic operation built on a Greenpoint, Brooklyn, manufacturing building, is searching primarily in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

BrightFarms, a Manhattan-based company that builds and runs greenhouses, is particularly interested in sites in Long Island City and Sunset Park, Brooklyn, said spokeswoman Kate Siskel.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/rooftop-farms-expand-queens-brooklyn-article-1.1028098#ixzz1ndLaJiku

Willkommen an alle unsere Fans aus Deutschland! Ich hoffe, dass...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:29:00 -0500

Willkommen an alle unsere Fans aus Deutschland! Ich hoffe, dass Sie die Inhalte dieses Blogs interessant und anregend finden. Früher habe ich in Frankfurt für zwei Jahre zu leben und zu bewundern Deutschland für viele seiner nachhaltiges Bauen. Schreiben Sie uns Ihre Kommentare und Ansichten zu diesen Agritecture Blog-Posts und teilen Sie sie mit Ihren Freunden. Ich würde schätzen Ihr Feedback (in Deutsch oder Englisch). Denn jetzt, hier ist ein cooles Video-Übersicht vertikalen Landwirtschaft. Was halten Sie von der Zukunft der Agritecture in Deutschland und der ganzen Welt denken?

Welcome to all of our fans from Germany! I hope that you find the content of this blog interesting and stimulating. I used to live in Frankfurt for two years and admire Germany for many of its sustainable building practices. Please share your comments and views on these Agritecture blog posts and share it with your friends. I would appreciate your feedback (in German or in English). For now, here is a cool vertical farming video overview.

Check out this Agritecture bridge concept by Chetwoods...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:19:00 -0500

Check out this Agritecture bridge concept by Chetwoods architects that was the winning entry for the London Bridge competition!

Laurie Chetwood’s design for an inhabited London Bridge includes solar-powered spires housing a self-sufficient hydroponic organic farm and commercial centre taking advantage of renewable energy generation, harvesting and efficient re-use of water, solar heating and natural ventilation. The vertical farm acts as a cooling tower and powers a wind turbine. Solar heated convection heats water, and EFTE provides a solar PV skin for electricity generation.

From Chetwoods architects

The "Spiral Garden" - A Vertical Garden Made of Light Mesh Material

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:30:00 -0500

I was browsing through Dickson Despomier’s vertical farm blog (now moved here) and stumbled upon this simple and beautiful vertical garden concept. The structure is designed to support community agriculture practices and because of its vertical construction, could store significantly more plots than traditional gardens. I really like the circular ramp that winds up the structure because it facilitates synergy among the garden plots. Also, the ramp makes it easier to use non-mechanical equipment to transport tools and harvested plants up and down the building on wheelbarrows or carts. Although not explicitly stated by the project architects, a ramp design like this could improve water use by designing an irrigation system that flows down and around the structure through each of the plots. Finally, the ramp design and open space in the middle makes the “Spiral Garden” a singular community space for the gardeners so that they can see one another, work together, and socialize.

This is what the designers themselves had to say about the “Spiral Garden”:

We wanted to build a new environmentally-friendly town where the environment is considered as an important part of everyday life. We propose ‘spiral garden system’: a public sustainable place like a green heart, easy to maintain and self-sufficient, created by a joint population that will stimulate social interaction among neighbors. A light, spiral structure protected by a transparent and suggestive mesh, the project encourages the city to create sustainable exchange spaces in different ways. This spiral contains an ascending garden where native vegetation can coexist with urban orchards, shared and planted for the neighbors for easy maintenance and serving also as a green outdoor walk. The ‘spiral garden system’ increases social interaction between people, provides a place for exchanging natural products, and becomes a way for local residents to get involved with their neighborhood. To sum up, we propose an ecological project in a way to give sustainable change to daily city lives, where humans and nature can coexist.

From DesignBoom

I really like how they integrate community use of the plots contained as part of their design concept. Here are some technical images of the building:

The light mesh outside envelope seems to allow a lot of light into the gardens but have neither seen nor read anything about artificial lighting, something which would most certainly be required to produce yields worth investing in such a project. Here are some images of the interior of the structure:

The team also presented one image of the structure in a dense urban center. I prefer the idea of a “Spiral Garden” being placed in a park or natural area mainly because this is a community Agritecture solution, not a commercial one. If it were commercial and located in what looks like downtown Tokyo, as the image below is proposing, then it would require a lot of artificial lighting and security systems to protect it. In a park or residential area on the other hand, community gardeners could be the guardians and it would be less likely to be vandalized. Furthermore, the open mesh outside layer as it is designed (without artificial lighting) would require wide space between the “Spiral Garden” and other structures so that natural light would never be blocked.

A very cool Agritecture concept that reminds me of a less expensive, hippie version of Plantagon’s vertical farm that also uses a spiral technique. I tip my hat to the Spanish design team that came up with this creative idea for producing food in urban areas, winning them 2nd place in the iida awards 2010. Now, let’s make it happen!

The Eco-Laboratory: Pure Agritecture

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:26:00 -0500

Every now and then you come across a sustainable design project that really inspires. This concept agritecture project is from 2008 but has not been featured on this blog yet. This project is a perfect example of how agriculture can be integrated into our buildings and provide multiple benefits to the structure, the environment, and its residents. Besides producing crops, this building uses agritecture as part of a closed loop living building design that reuses resources and improves efficiency. Meanwhile, the building brings the inhabitants closer to the systems that sustain them.

A team from Weber Thompson won the 2008 Natural Talent Design Competition at Greenbuild with their “Eco-Laboratory”. It is a Whole Earth Catalogue of green systems, with a rainwater collection system; hydroponic garden to grown food for the community; biological wastewater treatment system to convert black water to greywater and potable water; earth tubes to funnel clean, natural air into the building through underground ducts; vertical axis wind turbines and solar panels for on-site green energy; and hydrogen fuel cells powered by methane, a byproduct of the wastewater treatment system.

Read More

Check out how passive design strategies can be used to make the most of building-integrated agriculture systems. The diagram below shows how shading is used to optimize the sunlight for the crops in this living building.

And now check out the “earth tube” below the structure which brings fresh air into the structure throughout the year (SO COOL!)

And one last picture of the exterior:

For higher quality images, check out the Agritecture Facebook Page Examples Gallery.

Plantagon is an innovative vertical farming company based in...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:38:00 -0500

Plantagon is an innovative vertical farming company based in Sweden that has just broken ground on its first farm there. This is a big step forward for the company and vertical farming in general and has been reported on by many of the usual suspects: TreeHugger, Inhabitat, Archinect, and Agriculture.com. Here are some pics of the design that they are supposedly building:

A larger design of theirs:

And now the Plantagon “Helix” design:

And one more:

This company’s main focus is on constructing highly sophisticated automated systems that move crops from their infancy to harvest day upwards through the structure in order to guarantee optimal light distribution for the crops. I doubt that this rotating design can replace the need for artificial light as there is no way to evenly distribute the sunlight for all the crops which severely inhibits the feasibility of even harvests. Balanced, manageable, and predictable harvests are fundamental to the financial feasibility of dense urban farming projects because some of the founding principles for BIA are to improve food security, and urban crop profitability. Furthermore, the energy required for the mechanization that Plantagon plans to install for its systems is likely to cost copious amounts of energy.

Check out all of these inputs and outputs that they are designing!

For the moment, I will join the skeptics on this one. I just can’t seem to wrap my head around how this project will be successful in the near future. Eventually it might but for now it seems like a waste of resources when there are so many simpler solutions that they could be breaking ground on. I believe that we need to build up to vertical farms by improving the efficiency of the dense urban farming technologies that we have right now. Skipping over those development steps could prove to only worsen the environmental problems vertical farming aims to improve by using excising amounts of resources to build “utopia farms”.

I will end by saying that I do admire their perseverance and risk-taking. We need more of that from sustainable small businesses. Furthermore, Plantagon’s transparency demands respect as many VF companies are very protective of their techniques and projects. I also find their unique “companization” organizational structure fascinating and innovative. It is also interesting to note that the majority of the company itself (~80%) belongs to a New York State native American tribe. While this collaboration is unusual, it does represent a creative partnership which certainly keeps Plantagon afloat and could reap rewards for the Onondagas tribe in the long-run. To read a more critical assessment of the Plantagon vertical farming project and its partnership with “the people of the hills”, check out this article on Syracuse.com.

Plantagon has some very cool designs, mechanized systems, and is pushing the envelop in vertical farming perhaps more than any other business. I wish them the best on their new project and eagerly await the days that we can see images of the construction and eventually assess the success of the project.