Urban Roof Gardens’ rooftop farm in Victoria (London): This is a good demonstration that urban farming and design can go together. One of two terraces in this penthouse, this terrace brings echoes of Provence and the cubist hillside villages of Santorini. Individually crafted terracotta planters, of differing heights and sizes, provide for both decorative planting as well as working allotment for fruit and vegetables. A crunchy gravel path meanders between the planters, with perforated Sardinian brick walls dividing the large space, and affording protection from wind to both planting and people.

Check out our website for more inspiration! http://www.urbanroofgardens.com/our-portfolio/

‘Live Share Grow’ is a farm and residential tower proposed by the architect Brandon Martella for San Diego:

‘Paris in 2050’ by the architect Vincent Callebaut:

‘The Dragonfly’, Vincent Callebaut’s vertical Farm for New York City:

Plantagon’s vertical farm for Linköping (Sweden):

Professors Eric Ellingsen and Dickson Despommier’s vertical farm:

Check out our website for more inspiration! http://www.urbanroofgardens.com/our-portfolio/

The company Pasona Group, a recruitment agency based in Tokyo (Japan), has dedicated 20% of their 20,000 square meters office to growing fresh fruits, vegetables and even rice that are harvested and served to employees. Kono Designs, the architecture firm behind this project is hoping to inspire other offices to embrace this new design trend.

Watch this video https://vimeo.com/70848522 to know more about this project and check out our website for more inspiration! http://www.urbanroofgardens.com/our-portfolio/

Urban Roof Gardens’ rooftop farm in Victoria (London): This is a good demonstration that urban farming and design can go together. One of two terraces in this penthouse, this terrace brings echoes of Provence and the cubist hillside villages of Santorini. Individually crafted terracotta planters, of differing heights and sizes, provide for both decorative planting as well as working allotment for fruit and vegetables. A crunchy gravel path meanders between the planters, with perforated Sardinian brick walls dividing the large space, and affording protection from wind to both planting and people.

Below a selection of other UrbanRoofGardens’  rooftop projects for your inspiration…

Check out our website for more inspiration! http://www.urbanroofgardens.com/our-portfolio/

The Academy for Global Citizenship (AGC) also believes that a more sustainable world begins at school and offers students in Chicago an innovative approach to education in order to create a better future.

Together with Studio Gang Architects they are designing a new eco-friendly campus that teaches kids how to grow their own organic food:

We think it is critical to raise a generation of children who understand how to be good stewards of the earth. That’s why we’re very excited about innovative proposals for urban farm schools. Check out our website for more inspiration! http://www.urbanroofgardens.com/our-portfolio/

Below are some examples of some roof top farms that are already producing food and cleaning the air of some cities around the world: The Brooklyn Grange (New York) This is an example of PLANT-TO-PLATE and ORGANIC agriculture. Organic produce becomes more accessible as Urban farming forces farmers to grow crop in a more controlled and conscious manner. The main reason something isn’t organic is because the farmer is forced to use chemical pesticides to ensure a good yield when the environmental factors are not crop-friendly. The environmental factor is reduced to minimum in urban farming, so there is no actual need for using chemical growth regulators. All it takes is a good quality soil that contains nutrients, excellent lighting system and good quality water. Watch this video to see a full growing season at the Brooklyn Grange’s farm.

Studio Gang’s Rooftop Wheat Field (Chicago). Project in collaboration with Omni Ecosystems, featuring a wheat field living roof.  They were able to demonstrate that green roofs can support more than just leafy vegetables.

The Queens Apiary. Waldorf Astoria’s roof top (New York). They manage to produce the hotel’s own local honey.

JFK Airport T5 Rooftop Urban Farm (New York)

Gotham Greens’ rooftop greenhouse farm (New York). They are able to harvest daily and deliver directly to supermarkets and restaurants within hours of picking.

Check out our website for more inspiration!

This is called ‘precision agriculture technology’, and that’s why a company called FarmBot is developing this cool robot, the FarmBot Genesis. It is a crop-growing machine that lets you design your own very real patch of crops in your garden from a game-style app on your phone, tablet or desktop.

It reminds of a 3D printer with an arm that is able to seed, control the soil moisture, water the plants and remove the bad weeds. From the app, you can graphically design how your garden will look by dragging and dropping plants onto the map, plant seeds, water them, add nutrients, do the weeding, and even get information like temperature and soil factors. The app will let you know once it’s time to harvest.

It is actually a serious feat of technology that could make managing crops in your greenhouse, raised bed, urban roof garden or even larger commercial farming land more cost-efficient and less laborious.

Watch this video to see this cool machine in action.

Check out our website for more inspiration!

But what is it that makes urban farming seemingly superior to traditional farming?

It’s more PRODUCTIVE, being able to produce much more food than with regular farming. It’s all about the direction, most urban farms are designed vertically, that allows to grow produce in as many levels as possible.

It’s more SUSTAINABLE, saving a considerable amount of water, power and space, decreasing the development of drought, soil erosion and similar problems, and reducing the CO2 emissions because tractors and other vehicles are not required to transport goods.

It is more accessible to produce ORGANIC, growing in a more controlled and conscious manner. The environmental factor is reduced to minimum in urban farming and there is no actual need for using chemical pesticides used in traditional farming when the weather is not crop-friendly.

It provides FOOD EDUCATION in cities, cultivating a sustainable society where people are connected to the food and the land.

It is a PLANT-TO-PLATE agriculture, being able to eat products that have just been picked from the plant.

We are looking to URBAN ROOF FARMERS as our inspiration this month. We will be researching about this topic during the next few weeks to show you some examples of farms in urban areas around the world, some master plan farm projects and some new products and technologies. We will go through the present and the future of agriculture and the benefits of urban farming against traditional farming.

Furthermore, we can begin to bring forward what it might mean for architectural design when we think about a folding space — space transiently reconfigured through variation.

It is time to revisit walls, by really looking at them in section, and understanding how easily walls can turn into the ceilings, floors and transient windows.

Xile, a flexible tunnel designed by Swedish designer Mats Karlsson.

It’s one of three winners of the Forum AID Award 2008. The plastic product, which won the awards’ interior design category, can be used indoors or outdoors and is expandible.

Folded metal kiosk by Make

London architecture office Make has designed a portable prefabricated kiosk with a folded aluminium shell that opens and closes like a paper fan. Make based the design of the kiosks on the folded paper forms of Japanese origami, but chose to reproduce them in metal to create a compact and robust structure that can house street vendors.