Human Habitat, a Copenhagen-based urban design lab, thinks it has solved one of the problems nagging urban food production—limited space—with its Impact Farm, an easy-to-transport and -assemble hydroponic grown garden that’s designed to help rescue urban communities from their fresh-produce scarcities.
“We wanted to make urban farming even smarter,” Ronnie Markussen, one of Human Habitat’s founders, told Collectively.org, a website that reports on new ideas for the urban environment. The goal, he went on, is to increase food security in cities, lower the ecological footprint of food production, create jobs, and easily adapt to changes in the urban landscape.
“We wanted to reconnect people to food by giving them a green space that brings nature back into our cities,” said Human Habitat’s cofounder Mikkel Kjaer.
All of the construction components for Impact Farm, along with an instruction booklet, are stored and shipped in a flatpack container. When unpacked, the container includes an assembly kit of pre-made materials that become a two-story vertical, soil-free, hydroponic farm that covers 538 sf.
Construction takes about 10 days. And the structure can just as easily be disassembled and moved to another location. “The foundation of our design is C2C [cradle-to-cradle] and the circular economy,” the company states. “We use materials that are either re-used or designed to circulate within the production circle.” The whole structure is designed to be self-sufficient in terms of water, heat and electricity by harvesting sun and wind, and collecting rainwater. Future farms may adopt aquaponics.
Impact Farm is designed to create an economically sustainable business model that ensures resource-efficient local food production, green jobs, and increased local economic activity. The facility can grow greens, vegetables, herbs, and fruiting plants within its frame.
Currently, a prototype is being tested in Copenhagen’s Norrebro neighborhood, and Human Habitat’s Kjaer and Markussen intend to offer their product for sale to large cities in the United States and other parts of the world.
Circulate News and Collectively.org report that the innovators envision a number of different buyers of the farm, including housing co-ops, restaurants, schools, and municipalities.
Kjaer and Markussen estimate that the Impact Farm—which is meant to be a temporary structure—could produce 3-6 tons of food per year commercially, depending on crop combinations. The founders told Collectively.org that a larger, community-driven project—such as one seeking to produce vegetables, leafy greens and fruit for distribution to schools, kindergartens and nursing homes—could expect to produce up to just over 6 tons per year.
Initial retail costs are still being estimated.
Related Stories
Green | Feb 10, 2017
Radical proposal would transform Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive and create new lakefront park space
Over 70 new acres of public space would be created between Ohio Street and North Avenue.
Green | Feb 6, 2017
A to Z: Seoul’s elevated park features 24,000 alphabetized plants
The plants will represent 250 species found in South Korea.
Green | Feb 3, 2017
Nanjing Green Towers will be Asia’s first vertical forest
The project will be covered in 1,100 trees and 2,500 cascading plants and shrubs.
Sustainability | Jan 27, 2017
An office building proposed for Norway would generate more power than it uses
Over it’s 60-year lifespan, the power generated form the project would cover the energy cost of construction, production, and material transportation.
Sustainability | Jan 24, 2017
From an industrial park to an eco-neighborhood in Brussels, Belgium
At the heart of Vincent Callebaut Architectures’ eco-neighborhood will be three 100-meter-tall Vertical Forests.
Sustainability | Jan 19, 2017
How NYC is slashing 80% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
To help one of the most complex cities in the world develop an actionable strategy to meet visionary GHG reduction goals, we focused on strategies for deep carbon reductions for the city’s entire building stock, which constitutes 73% of citywide emissions, writes HDR's Jennifer Bienemann.
Game Changers | Jan 18, 2017
Turning friction into power
Research on piezoelectricity moves closer to practical applications for infrastructure and buildings.
Green | Jan 17, 2017
Everything you need to know to sound brilliant when talking about biophilia
We need nature in our everyday lives – which is why it’s so important to bring nature into the built environment.
Green | Dec 22, 2016
New tool makes it easier to share building energy efficiency information
The tool standardizes data collection from efficiency projects.
Sustainability | Dec 14, 2016
A floating, mobile gym powered by human energy envisioned for the Seine River
Energy created by those exercising within would power the gym down the Seine.