‘If climate change and population growth progress at their current pace, in roughly 50 years farming as we know it will no longer exist,’ Professor Dickson D. Despommier said interestingly in the introduction to the article, A Farm On Every Floor, published in The New York Times in 2009. The most immediate problem that will arise from an increasing population concerns food, which is one of our basic needs. Currently, nearly 80% of the world’s land is used for agriculture, while the rapidly swelling population is left with the remaining 20%. This necessitates some form of agricultural revolution.
The question is how to revolutionise? A large number of researchers would certainly suggest the “vertical farming” method as a solution, in much the same way as the expansion of high-rise condominiums. Such an idea is far from novel, but what vertical farming offers is distinct and advantageous methods of growing plants like the hydroponic system, which does not use soil, and the developed enclosed system that is capable of creating and controlling optimal conditions for plant growth. These will also prevent pests and diseases, maintain standards of production, ensure 5 to a 30% increase in productivity, and help reduce CO2 emissions due to transportation.
Regarding the location of this project, the criteria for choosing the site are:
1.The site is to be located in the centre or capital of the country.
2.It has good accessibility.
3.Its construction area is maximised.
4.A good view point.
All these must meet the aims of the project. Our chosen location is in the area of the Sena Intersection, Ladprao District, with the total area of 8.30 acres and 1,110 sq metres.
According to the aim and rationale of the project, the project will consist of areas allocated to vertical farming or a plant factory, a plant market, a product storage area, and a park, with the approximate utility space of 180,000 sq metres. For zoning, the plant factory will be built on the tower and the sub-basement. The plant market will be located on low-level flooring where it is conveniently accessible to users, whilst the product storage area, as well as the service zone, will be built at the rear of the building, making it convenient for car service access. The public park and plaza will be situated at the front of the building thereby blending the building into its park like environment, and the sky plant factory will link the two towers together.
The concept behind this project sprang up from an attempt to search for keywords related to vertical farming, with the word ‘plant’ constantly coming up first. As a vital part of the project, plants have a particularly interestingly structure, being continuously geometric when inspected at the cellular level. Looking more closely, we will observe parenchyma, which are fundamental cells of plants. Parenchymal cells, whichever part they are cut, have a clear geometric appearance called truncated octahedron, which can be comparable to two square pyramids glued together at their bases and their sharpest points cut. The truncated octahedron consists of 14 faces (8 hexagonal and six square), with symmetric edge length. In the light of this, we have designed our modular using the truncated octahedron as a model by which 1 unit of plant factory tower is placed per 1 modular.
In one modular, there will be a hydroponic plot divided into 14 layers with each layer containing 57 pits. The productivity in each modular is expected to be 140 kg per crop. One tower will comprise 426 hydroponic units, whose productivity is anticipated to achieve 60 tons per crop. Below is a picture of the structure of the truncated-octahedral modular.
Where does the source of light for growing plants inside a building come from? Besides natural sunlight, light bulbs installed in every plot layer will be used to provide artificial light, giving out the appropriate wavelengths that plants require (mainly falling in red and blue spectrums). Often, running a plant factory in some countries does not involve using natural light at all and consequently relies totally on artificial light sources, which can prevent the rapid growth of plants under such light.
Lastly, how to control the temperature inside the building? Apart from using air conditioners to lower the temperature to optimal levels for plant growth, an evaporative cooling system will also be implemented to help reduce the temperature in a more energy-efficient manner than normal air conditioners.