Eco Factor: Self-sufficient multi-purpose vertical farm proposal.
Architect Scott Johnson has taken a fresh, new approach to growing food in an urban environment in a sustainable skyscraper that combines vertical farming, residential, hotel and retail functions into a single, hybrid structure that is intended to be self-sufficient with regards to its carbon footprint and impact upon the environment.
Most vertical farm proposal aim to minimize the need for food distribution through transport, but Scott’s proposal, christened the Aberrant Agriculture, aims to entirely eliminate the need for transport by processing and vending the produce onsite. Inspired by the anatomical make-up of a sea cucumber, the vertical farm is an entity in the building’s core that nourishes and provides produce to the residential and hotel occupants.
The agricultural sector of the architecture hydroponically grows food items that are known for their high concentrations of essential nutrients. The production of food creates a different form of sustainable building, which not only sustains itself but also the inhabitants. The architect also proposes that all excess produce will be for sale to the public in a market on the easily accessible third level of the building.
Fresh water for the building is drawn from a nearby water body and stored in underground cisterns from where hydroponic pumps pump nutrient enriched water to all plants. Energy for the building is produced by burning the large amounts of methane in plant waste and harvesting the steam for electricity.
Via: The Rathaus
