Joining multiple branches of knowledge to rethink urban agriculture projects: urban farm challenge and experiences

Nowadays, with the current and foreseen scenario of urbanization and world population growth, urban agriculture (UA) represents an opportunity and a strategy to improve food production and supply, local economy, social integration, environmental sustainability as well as health conditions. Within this context, UA can reach and integrate the three pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental. For these reasons, UA has become a popular and common urban land use form worldwide in many cities

The energy of the green: green facades and vertical farm as dynamic envelope for resilient building

Abstract. The paper shares the results of a design submitted to a competition launched by the University of Wageningen, focusing on the retrofitting action of one of the existing towers of the former Bijlmerbajes prison complex in Amsterdam. The effort of an interdisciplinary team was oriented to demonstrating that it is possible to imagine the architectonic environment as a living organism, being part of the new food production chain, sponsoring zero kilometer products and increasing buildings’ sustainable comfort while reducing their energy consumptions. Promoting a healthy lifestyle, an awareness of how to environmentally friendly behave and keeping the ecological footprint as low as possible were the main goals we wanted to achieve with our retrofitting and regenerative proposal of the GreenTower

Introducing Building Integrated Agriculture as green/sustainable building concept in MENA countries: approach and constraints

In recent years, the emergence of Building-Integrated-Agriculture (BIA) in developed countries has been seen as a possible solution to promoting models of sustainable and productive building in urban areas. This approach, which is based on the installation of food production methods that combine innovative technology and soil-less growing systems, permit to grow fresh fruits and vegetables in and on buildings, while exploiting their resource outputs creating new synergies between the built environment and the food production system. The main objective of this study is to explore and examine the possibility of implementing BIA as a new approach for sustainable building construction in the MENA region, particularly in Algeria, by presenting a future perspective of the practice, and investigate its conceptual, technological, governmental, social and economic barriers

Integrating greenhouses into buildings: A renewed paradigm for circular architecture and urban regeneration

In the post-COVID-19 era, there has been an increasing interest in re-evaluating citizens’ living conditions within dense and grey urban areas. The provision of green spaces has always been identified as an important aspect of alleviating contemporary everyday life stress and preventing or limiting mental health-related issues. It is also an important strategy to mitigate urban heat islands and foster adaptation strategies to climate change. Among the numerous experiments of ‘green action’ available to urban planners, urban farming strategies have been widely used in Europe to provide green spaces and ecosystem services, exploring the topics related to self-production of food, biodiversity, and zero-km cultivation. Therefore, finding new spaces for agriculture in urban environments has driven scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs to develop new soilless technologies (such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics) to maximize yields in urban areas, creating new agricultural and architectural models such as the vertical farms (VF) and the building-integrated greenhouses (BIGH). In this regard, the objective of this paper is to recontextualize the integrated greenhouse element for high-tech food production as new iconic architectural models derived from the experience of the Victorian Winter Gardens and the first tropical greenhouses. Revisiting these perspectives, this paper offers opportunities to redefine the greenhouse as a multifunctional asset that aligns with both environmental goals and architectural standards

Supplementary material of the paper "Understanding the complexities of Building-Integrated Agriculture. Can food shape the future built environment?"

This file contains the supplementary material of the paper "Understanding the complexities of Building-Integrated Agriculture. Can food shape the future built environment?"

Supplementary materials of the paper "Evaluating the impacts of nutrients recovery from urine wastewater in Building-Integrated Agriculture. A test case study in Amsterdam"

This file contains the supplementary material of the paper "Evaluating the impacts of nutrients recovery from urine wastewater in Building-Integrated Agriculture. A test case study in Amsterdam"

UrbanFarm 2023: Integrating social, economic and environmental sustainability pillars for sustainable food systems and urban regeneration

Nowadays, with the current and foreseen scenario of urbanization and world population growth, urban agriculture (UA) represents an opportunity and a strategy to improve food production and supply, local economy, social integration, environmental sustainability as well as health conditions. Within this context, UA can reach and integrate the three pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental. For these reasons, UA has become a popular and common urban land use form worldwide in many cities. Indeed, in recent times, UA projects have spread across the world, guided as well as supported by governments and born by community-based initiatives. These projects may have a great variability: they range from low to high technological UA projects or they may have different purposes, being projects with a purely social and educational purpose or instead mainly devoted to food production and environmental services. Therefore, UA brings together multidisciplinary fields and opportunities. To facilitate a wider uptake of innovative policies and instruments for the promotion of the sustainable goals associated with UA, it is fundamental to first create and raise awareness both between institutional stakeholders as well as civil society through innovative and interdisciplinary approaches

VertiFarm2024 - Book of Abstracts

Vertical farming, growing plants on multiple layers or upright surfaces, in enclosed climate controlled chambers and supplemented with artificial lighting technologies, is reshaping current agriculture. This revolutionary way of food production may substantially impact our knowledge on plant biology and physiology, cultivation systems and resource use. Beyond the hype toward this new sector, a clear need for successful cooperation between industry and research is pivotal to ensure feasibility and sustainability of the technology. The International Workshop on Vertical Farming (abbreviated as VertiFarm from its 1st edition, in 2019, followed by a 2nd event in 2023) is a recurring workshop within the portfolio of scientific dissemination and communication events of the International Society for Horticultural Sciences (ISHS), the World's leading independent organization of horticulturists with a network of over 70,000 individuals, universities, governments, institutions, libraries and commercial companies. At VertiFarm, experts from diversified World regions and with cross-disciplinary backgrounds encounter entrepreneurs, policy makers and investors to exchange on priorities and challenges of the sector. Its mission is to shed light on innovation technologies and pave the way for the future evolution of the sector. The content of the 3rd International Workshop on Vertical Farming (#VertiFarm2024) are condensed in the following pages, where an effort was made to summarize the many diverse (though all significant) steps research and industry are advancing toward a viable vertical farming sector, ranging from the single technologies to the whole food system approach. Thematic sessions, business panels, workshop, technical visits and a dense agenda of social and networking events constitute the solid framework of the workshop series, as clearly visible in the agenda of this VertiFarm2024 edition. We sincerely hope you will enjoy the workshop and look forward to meet and exchange with you in the coming days