Urban Farming (AKA Dog Vomit Part II)

Daniel Libeskind's new tower

Earlier I talked about a little green ooze called Slime Mold. While they are not nature's prettiest creature, they do give us some good ideas on how our own cities could function. One of their most amazing characteristics is that certain species have discovered farming. Certain cells become "workers", who tend to bacterial orchards right on top of the mold. In this way, the mold is entirely self sufficient and vastly more efficient than any human society.

The trick is, as is often the case, location. Unlike our cities, the farms are built right into the basic structure of the society. Whereas we have to use valuable resources to maintain and connect massive farms miles from urban areas, the mold keeps them millimeters away. But how would we do this in our modern civilization without completely redesigning the very cities themselves?

Well, let's use Manhattan as our test subject, as it is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Try this: go to the planning office and tell them you want to build a farm. They will giggle profusely and have you carried out. No, with modern techniques, farming in Manhattan seems impossible. Even newly popular rooftop gardens could never sustain a population of that size. 

That's why we need to move. In the future, urban farming will be anything but horizontal, and we need great architecture to facilitate it.

One big idea is to build enormous, city block engulfing, farming superstructures. Like open-air skyscrapers, each floor could specialize in a different crop. Irrigation would be easy, relying on existing water infrastructure. Sunlight would be gathered by building the farms in a stair-step structure, like the picture on the right. Farms like these would be a simple and beautiful solution to food demand (and also air quality), but cost would get in the way. Even conventional skyscrapers are enormously expensive to build, especially in times like these.

Another solution is vertical gardening. Blasphemy! Plants can't grow sideways! Yes they can. A relatively inexpensive mesh can cover the sides of buildings which allow soil and irrigation systems to be suspended. Plants then use natural sunlight to give the building a nice green paint-job. The advantage here is that these vertical gardens can be used on existing buildings, eliminating the need for new construction. And as a plus, it's beautiful. Imagine walking through Manhattan surrounded by buildings like these and actually being able to breath. 

Soon you'll be able to reach out the window of your studio apartment and grab breakfast. If we ever want to make self-sustaining cities a reality, vertical is the way to go.