FARM-X.
Vertical Urban Farm. Feasibility Study.

Food has historically been grown in areas of low real-estate interest, far from densely populated settlements usually described as “cities”.

Farm-X is a modular vertical farm concept that shifts the historical dichotomy between production and food consumption. It grows up to 5t / day of fresh food in 1000 Sqm using specific hydroponic farming techniques in a fully controlled environment to maximize the productivity of leaf and fruit vegetables.

Farm-X is conceived as a device for the production of food and the city itself. Farm-X is a reactivation of abandoned warehouses plots, widely diffused within the US urban city fabrics. It is designed to operate as catalysts for urban reactivation, providing employment and exchange energy and services within any urban development complex.

The optimal size of a farm corresponds to a medium-sized urban block (32m x 32m) at four stories in height. This new building typology can be easily integrated into any modern urban fabric and play an active role in local community development with compact construction. Farm-X is designed to optimize its cost-effectiveness and replicability. Thanks to its flexible layout, after a neighbourhood reactivation is completed, the farm can be moved elsewhere, or it can be adapted to another functional program by removing the lightweight hydroponic equipment.

Farm-X can also generate energy by processing green waste, creating a close loop between people, food, waste, power within the urban environment. Farm-X is designed to reduce food distribution and production distance and reduce the reach of waste dismantlement by re-integrating it to the farm to produce energy.