Visions

By Cynthia G. Wagner

Vertical Farming:
An Idea Whose Time Has Come Back
Like all our precious resources, good ideas should be reclaimed
SOA ARCHITECTURE / THE VERTICAL FARM PROJECT, VERTICALFARM.COM

and recycled. Urban agriculture is one such good idea now made new again.

The Living Tower, designed by SOA Architects of Paris, reflects renewed visions of Earth-friendly urban agriculture.

Twenty-five years ago, THE FUTURIST featured John and Mary Jack Todds inspiring visions for architectureideas whose time may have finally come.

The April 1985 issue of THE FUTURIST featured an inspiring new book by New Alchemy Institute founders John and Nancy Jack Todd, Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City Farming: Ecology as the Basis of Design (Sierra Club Books, 1984). The visionary seeds they planted then are now coming into season.
ERIC ELLINGSEN AND DICKSON DESPOMMIER / COURTESY OF THE VERTICAL FARM PROJECT, VERTICALFARM.COM

The Pyramid Farm, designed by Dickson Despommier and Eric Ellingsen. Innovative architecture can bring food production and consumption closer together, making cities more self-sustaining.

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Among the Todds more intriguing proposals were multi-tiered city farms occupying once-abandoned warehouses: Mushrooms in the basement; chickens, eggs, trout, and catfish on the first floor; hydroponic veggies on the second floor; third-floor lettuce; and rooftop wind turbines and solarenergy panels. Even more intriguing were the Todds microagriculture visions, such as park fountains used for irrigation, fish raised in bus-stop aquariums, and sidewalks converted to aquaculture ponds. Now, these visions are being reclaimed, recycled, and renewed in towers that are half workspaces and half gardens, eco-laboratories and pyramid farms, and living skyscrapers with decks dedicated to food, fuel, or families. These and other inventive agro-architectural solutions take the ideas View of tomorrows Chicago skyline, seen from inside the Living Skyscraper, designed by Blake of city and indoor farmKurasek, Graduate School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. ing into a new, increasingly urbanized future. Farm Project envisions the transformation of urban arThe Vertical Farm Project, launched in 2001 by Columchitecture along ecological principles. A 30-story skybia University environmental health science professor scraper on one city block could potentially feed 50,000 Dickson Despommier, collects ideas that promise to reManhattanites, using technologies available now, acduce agricultures ecological footprintnot only by cording to Despommier. And with technologies availbringing food growers and consumers closer together, able in the future, intensive-farming techniques could but also by extending farmland into a third dimenenable us to settle on the Moon, Mars, or beyond. sion: skyward. The advantages of raising food crops and animals indoors and in closer proximity to consumers include About the Author year-round production, more-efficient use and reuse of Cynthia G. Wagner is managing editor of THE FUTURIST. E-mail water and other resources, and protection from threats cwagner@wfs.org. ranging from epidemics to terrorists. For more information, visit The Vertical Farm Project, The recent resurgence of urban agriculture in popular www.verticalfarm.com. futurist and science literature (including articles in SciJohn and Nancy Jack Todd co-founded (1981) Ocean Arks entific American, Time, Popular Science, and the New York International, www.oceanarks.org; since 1999, John has been a Times) illustrates that good ideas may need to be cycled research professor and distinguished lecturer at the University and recycled before their time truly comes. of Vermonts Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Like the Todds New Alchemy Institute, the Vertical
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BLAKE KURASEK / COURTESY OF THE VERTICAL FARM PROJECT, VERTICALFARM.COM

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Copyright of Futurist is the property of World Future Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.