How urban farms could solve our future food problems and promote a green lifestyle
- Projects such as Melbourne Skyfarm and those by Hong Kong’s Rooftop Republic are turning busy urban areas into hubs of food production
- Urban farms can also change the dynamics of a building, bringing people together and encouraging people to lead sustainable lives
In dense cities around the world, tall buildings are proving fertile ground for food production.
As urban farms appear in more places, including Hong Kong, it is no longer pie-in-the-sky thinking to believe that concrete skyscrapers, long blamed for edging out nature to pack in more people, could be the very things that draw plants and wildlife back.
In fact, says Brendan Condon, director of Melbourne Skyfarm – an ambitious project announced in the southeast Australian city last month – inner-city buildings offer an ideal growing environment.
“If you look at cities through a horticultural and engineering lens, there are huge opportunities to grow food,” Condon says, such as the large volume of rainwater run-off from rooftops and significant quantities of food waste that could be hot-composted as fertiliser.
“Then if we add clever food-growing architecture, we can intercept those resource streams and spin out huge amounts of food within the urban environment.”
Food-growing architecture refers to systems that can easily integrate into modern cities and use spare spaces such as rooftops, vacant walls, backyards, terraces, laneways, public spaces and car parks. In a test garden grown for Skyfarm, a single car parking space delivered 150 kilograms (331 pounds) of produce in six months.