Chicfarm: www.chicfarm.org: A Skyfarm can feed 35 thousand people

The UN predicts that we will need 60% more food over the next 30 years in order to meet the demands of the world’s ever-growing population, and one designer has found an interesting place to look for other alternatives for growing food as agriculturally viable land becomes more and more scarce. So people start to build skyfarm to feed more.

The First Post discusses skyscraper farming:
It's a tempting proposition - no more weather-related crop failures, diseases spread by livestock, or runoff polluting water sources. Not to mention locally-grown produce for the residents of central London, Manhattan and Tokyo, eliminating the environmental costs of transport (with fresher lettuces to boot).

Skyscraper farms can operate year-round with artificial lighting, so, on average, one indoor acre is the equivalent to between four and six outdoors, and companies are vying to reap the financial rewards that come from this increased efficiency.

Gordon Graff's Sky Farm proposed for downtown Toronto's theatre district. It's got 58 floors, 2.7 million square feet of floor area and 8 million square feet of growing area. It can produce as much as a thousand acre farm, feeding 35 thousand people per year and providing tomatoes to throw at the latest dud at the Princess of Wales Theatre to the east, and olives for the Club District to the north. Thankfully it overwhelms the horrid jello-mold Holiday Inn to the west.

Sweden Linkoping Plantscraper!

A building exclusively designed for growing crops exactly as in the agricultural fields, but in an urban environment, vertically, floor after floor .The strategy is to provide access to fresh production inside the urban limits which will avoid long distance transportation and so decrease the price and time for delivery. The idea is not new but it’s finally becoming real as the construction of the first. Plantscraper has already started in Sweden, in the heart of the city of Linkoping. The “urban farm”, 17 storeys in height, will provide the city with a natural “farm market “ in the city by the end of next year when it’s expected to be completed.

Basically the production in the Plantscarper in Linkoping will happen in pots which will be fit into trays that will be irrigated by funnels. All the wastewater will be collected and reused. The amount of pesticides and fertilizer will easily be controlled by an automatic system and in this way soil pollution is avoided. The trays when planted are being transported by a special elevator to the top of the Helix where they start their journey down the spiral structure growing and they reach the ground floor ready to be automatically harvested. It makes all year round production easy, efficient and compact.

The 3 different ways of integrating farming in the Plantscraper.

•    First example is by making the facade a productive greenhouse. They design a 6 meter deep greenhouse wrapping the building facade. The technology; consists of conveyors carrying pots with plants and rotating them regularly on 90 degrees, so that they receive sunlight regularly on all sides. This kind of façade provides, at the same time, enough light in the office spaces inside but also a good shade and regulates the temperature.

•    Another example of the technology is how to integrate the urban farm into existing buildings. They call it the Parasite as it looks like one attached to the structure.

•    The third example is what the team believes can in the future become a common part of cities suburbs just like big supermarkets are now and it’s the one under construction now in Sweden.

The innovative architecture of the building allows sunlight to all parts of the spirally organized space, covered by a glass sphere. The designers from Plantagon have even won a Silver Stevie Award for being “the most innovative company of the year” in Europe. They have invented a self sufficient system which uses the leftover heat, organic waste and carbon dioxide by using them to produce Biofuel or using the excess heat in the cold periods.

The smallest model of the skyfarm- chicfarm vertical farm will be able to feed a family per year and will cost about $300 to $400 . But the trick is that it’s being paid off by the production. The Chicfarm vertical farm is not only a way to produce food in the crowded urban areas; it is a possible solution to the urban life conditions nowadays, also a good example of multifunctional use of a building.