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IPFS News Link • Architecture

Towering Over the City, This 'Farmscraper' Will Produce 270 tons of Food from Hydroponics...

• https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org, By Andy Corbley

Combining a vertical farm and office space into a single 51-storey concept out of Chinese mythology, an Italian architect is completing the Shenzhen skyline with a stunning "farmscraper."

With a façade that features a vertical hydroponic farm extending the entire height of the building, the Jian Mu Tower was designed for a leading Chinese supermarket to be a place where tenants can grow, sell, buy, or consume produce in the same place they work.

Located in the south Chinese city of Shenzhen, the Turin-based Carlo Ratti Associati has unveiled plans to build a 650-foot (218-meter) tower in which 100,000 square feet (10,000 sq. meter) of the glass exterior is dedicated to producing food—590,000 pounds of it per year, which would also contain around a million square feet for office space, a supermarket, gardens, and food court.

Hydroponic gardening involves using a nutrient rich water vapor rather than soil, and allows plants to be grown in tubes stacked vertically.

Working with ZERO, an Italian-based company that specializes in innovative approaches to agriculture, Jian Mu's farm is optimized to produce everything from salad greens to fruits to aromatic herbs, while remaining efficient and sustainable.


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