Some of the best vertical urban garden proposals in the world, where zero-food-miles agriculture becomes a key component of urban growth.
The phenomenon of urban gardens, which emerged in the post-war period from the necessity of feeding a population exhausted after years of poverty, has experienced exponential growth in recent years — so much so that people no longer talk about zero food miles but about zero footsteps. Today, the element of verticality is added to this phenomenon: namely, the possibility and the necessity of growing food on building rooftops in order to make the best use of space in cities.
In some cases the initiative comes from local communities; in others, prestigious architecture firms sign off on cutting-edge projects that harness technology to make cities more self-sufficient in terms of food. This also reduces their impact on the countryside. Growing food up high on terraces and rooftops is advantageous not only because sun exposure is greater, but also because fine particulate matter tends to settle downwards. Here are some of the most cutting-edge international vertical urban garden projects.
While in the United States hydroponic cultivation systems are still the stuff of science fiction and vertical farms (urban farms, in English) are struggling to take hold, in China they are the solution to the problem of constant population growth and the consequent need to increase food production. Shanghai alone is home to nearly 24 million people, and the rapid growth of the economic capital — as with other Chinese metropolises — threatens the agricultural system, which is smaller in scale than the Western model.
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Sunqiao represents a new urban approach to agriculture, behind which stands Sasaki, an international architecture firm. The goal is to demonstrate that just as skyscrapers can develop vertically, so too can farms. The new plan for this district, whose construction was set to begin at the end of 2017, focuses on integrating vertical agriculture with research. The diet of Shanghai's residents — 56% of which consists of leafy vegetables — makes it possible to opt for hydroponic and aquaponic cultivation systems. Spinach, lettuce, kale and watercress require no particular care, grow quickly and weigh little, making them an economical and efficient option.
Among the protagonists of this district are floating greenhouses, green walls, and vertical façades for seed cultivation. This represents an even more sustainable approach to the local food network, one that fits perfectly within the plan adopted by Shanghai, where in recent years there has been a growing effort to safeguard both food and farmers, by taking control of local production and distribution while at the same time keeping cultivation within the city.
Gotham Greens, a New York-based farm that for some years has been supplying the residents of New York and Chicago with vegetables and fruit grown without the use of pesticides and with an irrigation system based on water reuse, manages various greenhouses situated on the rooftops of numerous buildings (some of them disused, such as a former timber warehouse in Brooklyn). The company was the first in the United States to design a commercial hydroponic urban greenhouse.
In 2015, it opened in Chicago the largest and most technologically advanced greenhouse, as well as the most productive rooftop farm. Gotham Greens' strengths lie in local production — which thus feeds a sustainable development model that also cuts transport costs — and in the use of renewable energy for production. Gotham Greens founder Viraj Puri participated in Milan in 2017 at Seed and Chips, one of the leading global events in the field of food innovation.
DakAkker, the largest rooftop farm in Europe, is located in the centre of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. It was created in 2012 by Binder Groenprojecten and launched by the company ZUS, in collaboration with the Rotterdam Environmental Centre. The smartroof (smart roof) with which the facility is equipped acts as a sensor with a greater water storage capacity than a traditional rooftop garden, thereby supplying all the water needed for cultivation.
DakAkker also serves as an area in which to experiment with new methods of vertical urban cultivation — not only by producing fruit and vegetables, but also by stimulating biodiversity in the urban environment, thanks to the presence of a botanical garden in which various aromatic herbs are grown. Furthermore, given the recognised importance of bees to the ecosystem (around 30% of food derives from the pollination carried out by these insects), six beehives are present on the building's rooftop.