Vertical Farming: URBAN agriCULTURE for the 21st Century

For the last century, establishing socially conscious and sustainable urban environments has been a deeply polarizing issue within the architectural community. And though theories on the matter have been plentiful, limited action has been taken towards the actual goal. As the planet’s population climbs higher, urban centers are experiencing a swell like never before. The percentage of Earth’s occupants living in urban areas surpassed that of rural areas in 2007 for the first time in history. This mass migration towards cities has created problems with food distribution and furthered the disconnection between humans and our own food production. To combat this issue, architects all over the world are hoping to develop an agricultural tower to serve as a prototype for sustainable methods of creating and maintaining vertical farming in urban environments.

Our cities are in dire need of transformation if they wish to make it through the 21st century. With the worldwide population growing, it is estimated that by the year 2050 nearly 80% of people will be living in urban areas. Lack of plantable land in arid climates, nutrient deficient soils from over-planting, increase in fuel prices used for transport and a scarcity of irrigation from depleted water sources are crucial problems that need to be dealt with. A new approach needs to be taken to account for and counteract these looming environmental complications which will have an especially adverse affect on the urban dwellers who live removed from any direct source of food or sustenance. The implementation of urban agriculture, housed in towers throughout cities worldwide, is an efficient, sustainable, achievable, and above all local solution to many of these problems.

In the coming days The Rathaus will be posting some of the best proposals for vertical farms created by the likes of SOA Architects, William McDonough, Gordon Graff, Dickson Despommier and Mithun. Our hopes in posting this information about the use of agricultural towers in our urban cores will heighten interest not only in vertical farming but also the radical changes in attitude needed to sustain our future cities.