Rooftop Agriculture

I've purposely steered away from the pure rooftop farms in discussions of vertical farming solutions recently featured (here, here, here, and here). This isn't due to any particular reason other than I think that rooftop farms area a separate typology in it's own right - as it is focusing on a separate area of emphasis including horizontality and openness to sun and air. For instance I mentioned the greenhouses at Zabar's - but there is also a significant amount of traditional rooftop agriculture.


:: image via City Farmer

Otherwise, plenty of proposals abound for rooftop planters on housing, and event making it's way into corporate campuses for use by workers. One example is the simple Sophos Vancouver Rooftop Community Garden - implemented on an office rooftop.


:: image via City Farmer

Recent proposals (and there have been many along with a lot of press) incented me to look through a number of these rooftop examples past and present as a way of rounding out the vertical farming survey. First, via The Architect's Newspaper: "The Fifth Street Farm Project has it all: It addresses childhood obesity, stormwater runoff, and climate change. Conceived by a grassroots organization of teachers, parents, and green-roof advocates, the project’s plan calls for a roof farm atop the Robert Simon Complex..."


:: image via The Architect's Newspaper

A troubling quote I think brings up some inherent issues as we drive towards implementation of rooftop farms - and some of the challenges that are necessary to address. As quoted in the article: "In spite of all the good intentions, there are formidable technical hurdles and political challenges to building a farm on top of a school. “There’s a lot of bureaucratic craziness,” said Susannah Vickers, director of Budget and Grants in the office of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, "...Things as arcane as the warranty of the roof—they have to do boring samples and engineering reports—and oftentimes the roof substructure is not able to support the new use.”


:: image via The Architect's Newspaper

These aren't arcane or minimal issues - but fundamental to proper technical installation that meets project goals while protecting the health, safety and welfare of the community - and specifically the kids at these schools. A recent example of a project gone awry in Vancouver, and a related story of the Brooklyn Grange installation in Queens getting a stop-work order for not filing necessary permits reinforces the need for these project to both have the energy of urban farmers, but also the technical backup and processes necessary to ensure they are appropriate. (The stop-work order has subsequently been lifted after permits were filed and a fine paid, which is good news as this project is gonna be pretty awesome).


:: image via Brooklyn Grange Farm

The Brooklyn Grange Farm was preceded by the amazing Greenpoint, Brooklyn rooftop farm 'Eagle Street Rooftop Farm' - which features 6000 s.f. of rooftop growing and 200,000 pounds of soil - not in containers, but as monolithic soil based growing - lessening initial investment and maximizing productivity.


:: image via NY Magazine

A local precursor on the west coast isn't the Rocket in Portland - but rather the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. which has been in operation since around 2000 - making it one of the very first examples - and also one with some good economic data: "Hotel accountants say the roof garden produces fruits, vegetables, herbs, and honey worth about $16,000 annually."


:: image via City Farmer


:: image via City Farmer

Japan has been looking at rooftops, as limitations in the amount of arable land . City Farmer shows a photo of one example: "Wasted space in the modern metropolis may become productive “farmland” thanks to advances in waterproofing green roofs. Some of the rice used to brew Japan’s popular Hakutsuru sake grows atop the company’s Tokyo office."


:: image via City Farmer

The first issue of Bracket with the topic 'On Farming' offered some One of these is Long Island City: Farming Park. A bit of project description:

"All too often we see land being taken away for parking and at the same time the reclamation of abandoned parking lots to turn into viable land, specifically farms in urban environments. The project, which is a park and ride facility and urban agricultural farm attempts to combine these two typologies to co-exist on one site, bringing the process of food production and consumption in contact with a major multi-modal transfer point between the car and NYC’s existing public transportation network. The project will provide an alternative option for those accessing NYC by car and also challenge the conventional function of a park and ride facility to provide a greater good for those users and the surrounding neighborhoods; connecting Long Island City and Sunnyside Queens with a much needed public green space. "

:: image via Bustler

As [BRKT] showcases, there are plenty of zoomy architectural options out there - some of these simple and brilliant, others a bit overwrought with possible maintenance and installation issues. One very cool example (that may lean towards the overwrought side of the perspective) - comes via Pruned is Taebeom Kim's Gastronomic Garden - including: "...allotment gardens hovering over — perhaps are even propped up by — compost tanks used for recycling garden scraps as well organic waste of local residents."


:: image via Pruned

Vertical Agriculture (Back to Earth)

Digging through the archives based on the last couple of posts, I was definitely struck by the myriad shapes and sizes that these vertical farming proposals take and the overall excitement that has grown in a short amount of time. This caused me to want to dissect them a bit further in terms of form and function for growing food in efficient ways. First a bit of background from the 'invention' of vertical farming on this video featuring Dr. Dickson Despommier.



Discounting for a second those proposals that incorporate indoor hydroponics using artificial light - the idea of growing in buildings using sunlight is the focus (some info about the indoor varieties) of many other projects out there. A few additional proposals worth noting - just to include them in the overall catalogue (as previously mentioned, the best assortment of ideas in this genre is found at the Vertical Farms site - under the auspices of Despommier - which has been interviewed multiple times (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here to name but a few) - call him the mother of this particular invention.

These proposals include this one from last year which got a lot of attention, Harvest Green by Romses Architects, featuring vertically integrated food production.


:: image via Treehugger

Via Treehugger: "The concept of 'harvest' is explored in the project through the vertical farming of vegetables, herbs, fruits, fish, egg laying chickens, and a boutique goat and sheep dairy facility. In addition, renewable energy will be harvested via green building design elements harnessing geothermal, wind and solar power. The buildings have photovoltaic glazing and incorporate small and large-scale wind turbines to turn the structure into solar and wind-farm infrastructure. In addition, vertical farming potentially adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals. Furthermore, a large rainwater cistern terminates the top of the 'harvest tower' providing on-site irrigation for the numerous indoor and outdoor crops and roof gardens."



:: images via Treehugger

Another smaller scale example from Romses Architecture features the idea integrated into a eco-community. From Arch Daily: "“Harvest Green Project-02′ as a part of Vancouver ‘The 2030 Challenge’. Harvest Green Project is rooted in a concept that challenges the status quo of how energy and food is produced, delivered and sustained in our city, neighbourhoods, and individual single-family homes. Taking cues from the citys eco-density charter, and in particular, it’s new laneway housing initiatives, the Harvest Green Project proposes to overlay a new ‘green energy and food web’ across the numerous residential neighborhoods and laneways within the city as these communities address future increased densification. The city’s laneways will be transformed into green energy and food conduits, or ‘green streets’, where energy and food is ‘harvested’ via proposed micro laneway live-work homes."




:: images via Arch Daily

Some others you've probably seen over the years:

Vertical Farm by Mithun
"Architects at Mithun, a Seattle architectural firm, proposed a small-scale vertical farm design for a Center for Urban Agriculture in downtown Seattle. The design won an award in the Living Building Challenge of the Cascadia Region's chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council in 2007."


:: image via NY Times

Food Pyramid (Eric Ellingsen & Dickson Despommier)


:: image via NY Times

Atelier SOA Vertical Farm
Via NY Times: "A vertical farm has to be adapted for a specific place," said Augustin Rosenstiehl of Atelier SOA Architects in Paris, whose firm has created renderings of the crop-filled skyscrapers."


:: image via NY Times

Another version from Atelier SOA - with a woven ribbon of gardens throughout the slick black facade.


:: image via NY Times

Gordon Graff's Skyfarm for Toronto
Via Inhabitat: "Instead of soil, Skyfarm’s plants float on trays of nutrient-rich water, growing hydroponically over 59 stories stacked half a dozen storeys deep. Farmed within a controlled environment, crops will no longer be subject to the vagaries of climate, infestation, or disease and the dense hydroponic agriculture can guarantee considerable yields. With the potential to operate year round, one indoor acre has been estimated to be able to yield the equivalent of between four and six outdoor acres, or enough food for 50,000 people a year. With the installation of several Skyfarms in the neighborhoods of especially large cities, the prospect to dramatically transform local food production is there."




:: images via Inhabitat

“The Living Skyscraper: Farming the Urban Skyline” by Blake Kurasek




:: images via Urban Greenery

Urban Agriculture: Hybridized Farm Bridge as City Garden - Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui & Lorene Faure


:: image via Bustler

A more technical proposal, I covered this previously, but the breakdown of the elements of a vertical farm as imagined in NY Magazine - which shows the interrelated elements of a possible project - complete with robots to maintain them on a 24-hours a day basis.


:: image via NY Mag

I think the much more exciting news is the implementation of large-scale rooftop farms (more on this soon) - which seem to be analoguous to terrestrial farming. As other bloggers may have noticed, any post related to urban agriculture and vertical farming will inevitably lead to a comment by Charlie - there's been a few, who undoubtedly is paid to plug Valcent whenever the opportunity arises. The message is simple and sweet: "“I can’t think of any technology that addresses more urgent issues than Valcent’s vertical farming system”, says Robert F Kennedy Jr. http://bit.ly/cPb00g; Reuters Video features Valcent’s VertiCrop vertical farming system: http://bit.ly/a9p47W" Not that I'm wholesale against this form of promotion, but 1) is shameless promotion, and 2) it's not applicable to the content that was posted. Regardless - there will be more of this as companies fight for market share and prominence in this fledgling territory.


:: image via Inside Urban Green

Finally, as I mentioned there's some interesting (and necessary) debate happening, which is worth a read as the pendulum of vertical farming swings back to reality. There's the debate on Treehugger"Vertical Farms, a Tower of B.S." about high-rise farming. Also of note is this recent article in Fast Company entitled which references a story on EcoGeek with some cautionary lessons entitled: "Let's Make This Clear: Vertical Farms Don't Make Sense ".

The vertical farming movement isn't useless by any stretch - but it's important to realize that these proposals - although provocative, aren't the only answer to our issues of feeding people in ever growing urban areas. The discussion is good, although interesting that - not as a mode of discounting the concept - but of placing it in it's proper context around the viability of growing food in cities - and by most importantly making it a catalytic movement in inspiring actual small-scale solutions that will actually work.

Vertical Agriculture (From Outer Space)

While I continue this impromptu study of the current state of Vertical Agriculture - it's important to realize that the ingenuity of humans is always a factor. Industrialization of growing food is a long-standing feature of agriculture - which has probably simultaneously done the most good for productivity and the most harm in severing our connection to the land. Conversely, hard times lead to necessary solutions to make life possible even here on Earth - so the combination of technology needs to be paired with common sense and thought of the consequences beyond economics and efficiency.


:: plans to grow food on the moon - image and story via Palscience

As a rabid sci-fi fan - the more technologically referential proposals provide inspirations of how we may feed ourselves on a trip to the far reaches of the galaxy (or in the distant post-apocalyptic future) - but are less inspiring as solutions to feeding people on this planet due to the fact they seem like they're making something really simple and creating a super complex way of doing it.


:: image via Dezeen

The gee-whiz techno-gadgetry sure is fun though (both to parse and to make fun of). I laugh when I see the commercials for the tomato towers (see Topsy Turvy for the latest) - as I am just waiting for someone to propose version of this under the guise of vertical farming to save the planet and wonder what the benefits are from growing tomatoes the way i've been doing for years - up! While garden space and solar access are always an issue - i'm having a hard time wondering how this vertical solution is better - maybe in zero gravity?


:: image via Charles and Hudson

In all seriousness - the ideas of vertical farming is definitely influenced by the research into space and the ability to grow food both indoors and in close quarters. For those promoting these solutions - it's evident that they see this work as essentially saving the planet.


:: space food - image via NASA

A recent proposal from Philips Design called Biosphere Home Farming is a perfect example that you could see displayed in the mess hall of the Millennium Falcon (although by no means the only one). "We wanted to develop something initially that would supplement the nutritional needs of a family living in high rise accommodation, without drawing electricity or gas."


:: image via City Farmer

One major player in the technology-driven side is Valcent Technologies, which you've probably seen over the years with a range of products (and the addition of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to their board of advisors). My first introduction was the relatively innocuous High Density Vertical Growth (HDVG) panels aimed as maximizing square footage using simple hydroponic techniques.


:: image via Treehugger

This has been followed up with VertiCrop, which is more of a tray based rotating hydroponic system that could smoothly tuck into the food court on the Death Star. "The VertiCrop system grows plants in a suspended tray system moving on an overhead conveyor system. The system is designed to provide maximum sunlight and precisely correct nutrients to each plant. Ultraviolet light and filter systems exclude the need for herbicides and pesticides. Sophisticated control systems gain optimum growth performance through the correct misting of nutrients, the accurate balancing of PH and the delivery of the correct amount of heat, light and water."


:: image via Valcent Technologies

Another new system is called AlphaCrop - which is a bit different and looks like a rotating A-frame to maximize solar access: From their site: "Larger commercial growers may also employ AlphaCrop™ to compliment their VertiCrop™ systems and to produce a wider range of crops including baby carrots, salad potatoes and strawberries." Looks like from the size of the photos, their keeping this one a bit more vague, but you get the idea. Use energy to provide lighting and maximize productivity by using more energy to rotate trays to areas to get more access. Maybe it's worth it - with proper accounting of all externalities - I'd love to see the balance sheet for a project such as the recent installation of VertiCrop at the UK Zoo which boasts a 20-fold increase in per-acre production.

This brings up space age point number 2. While the sun our amazingly cheap grow lamp, but also a great limiting factor in food production especially when fighting against density and shading from buildings, lack of horizontal surfaces, and many other factors. In this vein, are there times when supplemental electricity (perhaps from renewable sources) makes sense to grow plants indoors? Does the cost to produce electricity and grow food with it outweigh or at least equalize our cost of transportation? There's a long lineage of hydroponic growing indoors - from the winter tomato to the kind bud - but the question does still remain - even with high-efficiency lighting, as to the efficacy of these systems. Valcent has a proposal for a large scale installation in a warehouse using artificial lighting and information on their collaboration with Phillips.


:: image via Valcent

A number of posts delve into this, such as the transformation of a steel factory in Japan to growing hydroponic lettuce, and also City Farmer discussing the rise of indoor food production facilities in that country of which space is a premium. In 2005 they took a basement space and "Pasona Inc, a human resources service company, built the greenhouse in order to introduce the pleasure of agriculture also to train aspiring farmers in the city."


:: image via City Farmer

Another to this list is the Omega Garden Hydroponic 'Ferris Wheel' which takes the space age vibe to the extreme with rotating cylinders of growth around supplemental lighting. Check out the photo and video below for more info.


:: image via Treehugger



Another interesting proposal in the vein of the less commercial is the urban space station , which is a "parasite architecture," the semi-permanent structure sits atop any roof as it filters air, grows food, and re-uses organic waste for inhabitants."




:: images via Jetson Green

As mentioned on Jetson Green, the project (and maybe outer fantastic urban ag solutions) may be most important as a conceptual thought exercise that generates discussion and innovation, versus providing the silver bullet solution: "While the feasibility a system like this that actually works well is very low, this concept does have some relevance to the green building community. Perhaps above all, the urban space station is important as a built experiment. "

Designer Natalie Jeremijenko states:

"It's most important function [is] as an icon for future possibilities." It is a creative attempt to push the boundaries of urban design, and to continue the conversation around sustainable living solutions. As the green movement matures, it is critical to continually produce new concepts to challenge the ways of the past, and to ensure that the movement is more than a media-driven fad."

Oh, I can't wait for that day.