Imagine Living

Agriculture has been a source of food and the anchor point of civilization for thousands of years. However, as civilization evolved, our connection with food separated. Rapid urbanization is taking over the arable lands at a high rate of 8 percent. Many studies show that by the next 30 years, food consumption will be more than the last 10,000 years combined, 80 percent of which will be in cities. Therefore, cities must be a part of food cultivation. On top of that, the continuous toll on nature due to urbanization has caused a gradual decrease in arable land. The future seems to hold a reality where not only will we be further away from our food and its sources, but the world may not be able to sustain the food requirements of its population. The vision of this project is to find a way where we can grow food and live alongside our food, not only on an individual scale but on a communal one. This project is an experiment in which a ‘vertical farming’ intervention—as a means of food production—is made in an urban apartment building. This is where vertical farming and its prospects in terms of efficient food production comes into play. Vertical Farming is the type of new farming technique which is still undergoing research around the world. It can be applied on a small scale with high yields. Although this is still relatively new compared to traditional agriculture, it has the benefit of a much higher yield on minimum horizontal land and can be scaled up and down vertically. The project will be focused on the way an urban residence in a densely populated city like Dhaka can be designed based on the vertical farms. Since this is an experiment, a site was chosen which is on a future neighborhood called Purbachal on the outskirts of the city. The site chosen was done to provide control factors such as allowable floor areas and total storey calculations. After these were done, the 10 storied building was to be designed to sustain a community built around food production. The conceptual sketch depicts such a collective endeavor within the building. The design phase began with environmental analysis mainly sunlight and a short analysis of the possible provided area for food production. The basic “control” form was broken up to allow sufficient lighting for the farming spaces culminating into a modular arrangement based on the radiation analysis. It is found in the study that the south, east and west facades for this site are the most favorable for farming. The site allowed a 10-storey building with a 9m road on the front. The focus of this experiment was to generate a system based on the needs associated with a farming module on each unit. After our environmental study and placement of farming units, we achieve an arrangement of multiple 2-bedroom units and 3-bedroom duplex units, which allow for pockets of community gathering spaces meant to encourage food sharing amongst families to generate a culture around food. The building is designed to allow visual connectivity as each faming module can be seen from the adjoining units to create further levels of interaction. The farming module design is going to be prefabricated and made of a timber frame. The module is flexible in its use and the grow beds attached to the frame are movable and adjustable. The entire building form is designed from the outside in. The position of the farming modules and the modular grid led to the apartment layouts being solved how they are. Then a system was generated, showing the arrangement of apartment dwelling units that can be stacked up to make the overall building. The apartments on the locations where there is low light will grow more low light food than the ones with higher light intensity. Hence, the community sharing spaces are there to be activated as families can share their food and develop a culture around food. The building also has a community farming unit on the roof where a collective study and food production can take place on a larger scale. Lastly the ground floor has a space for neighboring families to come and host weekend markets as well. Overall, the project hopes to inspire a future where urban life is also intermingled with food production so we can sustain a growing population for the future.