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Deep below Tokyo's financial district, the Pasona Group, an international employment agency, has
flipped the switch on a stunning experiment in urban agriculture. The company converted a bank vault
in the subbasement of its headquarters into a series of supersized greenhouses, all bathed in the glow of
computer-controlled grow lamps. Pasona O2, as the project is known, was launched to pique interest in
new methods of farmingand to generate future employment opportunities in an island nation largely
dependent on others for its food. For now the subterranean gardens are still more a showpiece than a
serious producer, since they yield only 132 pounds of rice a year.
for the limited amount of remaining natural resources of an already stressed out planet, creating
an intolerable social climate.
So the major rationale for the concept of the urban integrated farm is the idea that it is not
realistic to depopulate the urban areas as a significant number of people have acclimated
themselves to the city lifestyles. Additionally a massive reverse of the urban migration pattern
may not even solve the problem as the issue is too many people consuming too much too far
away from the means of primary production. What urban agriculture offers is a way to take
agriculture into the space age and do so without sacrificing the ecology or human health while
providing important research insights into living in inhospitable environments that might
eventually pave the way for sustainably colonizing what now are inhospitable environments for
humans without the need for resupply which is of course a real concern for space travel.
The general idea is to start at a very basic level: a fully contained community center designed to
hold 300, along with homes for a nominal population of 100. DEI envisions such a system being
launched on a barge capable of being volume produced. The goal would be to provide affordable
housing in a sustainable living format that minimizes the carbon dioxide and overall ecological
footprint of the homeowners. This floating community design can be adapted easily for land use
through some combination of a condominium and single family homes clustered around the
farm/community center complex. While I think the idea of a floating city is a novel one I think
we should first develop the concept on land where the conditions are not so challenging.
Although possibly the novelty of the floating city concept would gather a lot of attention.
Fuller is famous for the idea of covering all of Manhattan with a large dome. The idea was that it
could save a huge amount of energy. However the practicality of such a design is questionable
even now. This design says Leon is a reduction of Fullers Triton City and an enlargement of the
barge of New York Sun Works. It falls well within the proven design parameters of the naval
architect and marine engineering profession.
Fuller was never able to get his Triton City funded, perhaps and Leon thinks this was because he
was targeting the low end of the housing market. I however think that it was the general
impracticality of Fullers designs that led to him being seen as more of a pie in the sky visionary
than a practical implementer of technologies. Thus in my view this contest is an opportunity to
begin to develop from the Fuller vision of synergy a integrated development approach that is not
set to any rigid structure but is based on a new vision of living and seeing the world.
Build
ing Integrated Agriculture
Locating the production of food in our cities and on the buildings within the city (Building
Integrated Agriculture) offers a valuable response to two major challenges of modern urban
living. The need to reduce the distance food travels before arriving on the plate of urban
consumers and the need to reduce the environmental impact of buildings. Our pragmatic
approach takes tried and tested technologies from the high-profit, controlled agriculture industry,
and sites them directly next to free or cheap sources of energy, within the urban environment.
http://nysunworks.org/?page_id=11
where he held directorships of two urban regeneration partnerships and was elected to the local
school board.
http://www.brightfarmsystems.com/
Urban Agriculture
Modern agriculture is the largest consumer of land and water on the planet, the cause of most
water pollution, and the source of fifteen percent of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. Food
travels thousands of kilometers to reach urban consumers, adding to traffic congestion, air
pollution and carbon emissions.
BrightFarm urban food production systems use up to twenty times less land and up to ten times
less water than field agriculture. No chemical pesticides are used, and there is no fertilizer runoff.
Rainwater is collected onsite for irrigation. Integrated solar panels deliver 100% of the
electricity. Climate control is achieved by evaporative cooling, natural ventilation and recovery
of waste heat from adjacent buildings.
BrightFarm systems are environmentally sustainable, and they provide fresher, healthier
vegetables directly to urban consumers. We call this approach building integrated agriculture.
The BrightFarm strategy relies on hydroponics, the practice of growing vegetables in water,
rather than soil. We adapt this commercially successful technique for use in the city by reducing
the need for fossil fuels and water, and by designing the greenhouse to perform well in a rooftop
setting.
Applications for BrightFarm range from large commercial farms on shopping malls, warehouses
and office buildings, to smaller systems designed for schools and community housing