A researcher at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture is developing designs of vertical farms that would not only work economically, but may also yield more than just food. In his Master’s thesis, Skyfarming, Gordon Graff explains:
Graff created an entire hydroponics system that fits into a 14,700 square meter building and consumes as little as 14.4 cubic meters of water, as compared to 1800 and 3500 cubic meters of water used up in an acre of lettuce in the state of California, roughly 240 times that of Graff’s system.
A vertical farm must be able to produce enough food to cover the cost of its day to day operations and, ultimately, the capital cost of the building’s construction (or renovation). While this is clearly dependent on some factors outside the realm of architectonics, such as the market price of food and current state of grow-lighting technology, the physical arrangement of the building can have a profound impact.
Graff created an entire hydroponics system that fits into a 14,700 square meter building and consumes as little as 14.4 cubic meters of water, as compared to 1800 and 3500 cubic meters of water used up in an acre of lettuce in the state of California, roughly 240 times that of Graff’s system.
Vertical farming would increase a city’s resilience to the more long- term, systemic alterations that human society is widely expected to experience in the coming decades. With vertical farming’s maximally efficient resource use and functional segregation from the natural world, cities could achieve food security amidst the environmental transformations and resource shortages that would cripple a conventional urban food network.source
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