Farm in the sky could feed our booming population!
Filed under Environmental News
Xavier Dune
Organic Vida
Monday, May 25, 2009
A dramatic vertical greenhouse shaped like the wings of a dragonfly could revolutionize farming in cities across the globe, according to its architect.
The amazing looking 650yd tall building was designed by Belgian designer Vincent Callebaut and would be constructed on Roosevelt Island in New York.
Spanning 132 floors it would provide urban farming space with enough room to raise cattle and poultry and 28 different types of crops, within a controlled environment.
There would also be space for housing and offices with walls and ceilings used to grow kitchen gardens. Each level would be cultivated by the permanent residents.
The Dragon Fly has two central towers arranged around a huge greenhouse that are linked together via two wings made from glass and steel.
It would be heated using solar energy in winter, which would harness the warm air between the wings. In summer it would be kept cool using natural ventilation and evapo-perspiration from the plants.
Exterior vertical gardens would filter rain water that would then be mixed with domestic liquid waste. After organic treatment it would be recirculated for farm use.
Self contained paradise? Residents of the 132-floor building would grow crops and cultivate kitchen gardens
Floor by floor, the tower superposes not only stock farming ensuring the production of meat, milk, poultry and eggs but also farming grounds, true biological reactors continuously regenerated with organic humus. It diversifies the cultivated varieties to avoid the washing of stratums of soft substratum. Thus, the cultures succeed one another vertically according to their agronomical ability to provide some elements of the ground between the essences that are sowed and harvested. The tower, true living organism, becomes thus metabolic and self-sufficient in water, energy, and bio-fertilizing. Nothing is lost; everything is recyclable to a continuous auto-feeding!
Mr Callebaut is known for his eccentric designs. A 2008 plan of his featured a self-sufficient floating city in the shape of a huge lilypad.
While the lilypad city was designed as a solution to rising sea levels in the future, the Dragonfly was designed to deal with a world food shortage as the human population continues to increase.
‘The worldwide urban population will go from 3.1 inhabitants in 2009 up to 5.5billion inhabitants by 2025,’ Mr Callebaut explained.
‘The ecological city aims to reintegrate the farming function on the urban scale in the use and reuse of natural resources and biodegradable waste.’
The revolutionary farm would completely change the New York’s skyline. Read more about the design here…
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This is the most beautiful and inspiring piece of architecture I’ve ever seen. I love the idea that it is based on a dragonfly – dragonflies represent transformation, which is exactly what needs to happen.