Urban Farms.04
These designs are a few years old, and we haven’t heard of any actually being developed. Rumours that a 30-story vertical farm was being planned for Las Vegas four years ago, turned out to be just that – unfounded rumours fanned by the blogosphere and the belief that if it’s on the internet it must be true. Similar stories about New York, Toronto, Seattle, and any number of other cities around the world also seem to be just wishful thinking based on urban design competitions or university architectural assignments. Nonetheless, these ideas do have merit and we wish some big investor and/or developer would be enough of a visionary to undertake such a task.
Which one of these would you like to see in southeastern Queensland?
The Circular Tower Farm by Chris Jacobs
Designed in cooperation with Dickson Despommier, this all-inclusive residential eco-tower would produce more energy, food, and water (through condensation and purification) than its occupants would consume.
La Tour Vivante by Pierre Sartoux of Atelier SOA
Although this design won a competition for the city of Rennes in northwestern France, it has not been built. In addition to a fully-functioning farm, it would include commercial and residential spaces, as well as solar and wind power plants.
Symbiotic Interlock by Daekwon Park
This modular design is meant to work with existing urban structures and would include multiple garden units, social spaces (including cafes, libraries, museums, retail, etc.), wind turbines (to convert the wind generated between skyscrapers into energy), and sky bridges connecting various levels.
These three designs were featured in an article on Web Urbanist. A perfunctory search online will produce hundreds of building proposals for urban vertical farms. We can’t wait until they start becoming a reality.
