In Sweden, engineers, architects, scientists, and optimists alike have unveiled a state of the art design for the future of urban agriculture. This impressive new urban food production project was conceived of by the company Plantagon and has been in the design phase for the last ten years.
Using the same basic principles of hydroponics to grow food in urban areas where space and resources are limited, this Plantagon project intends to be both sustainable in terms of agriculture production and just as important, esthetically pleasing.
What may have been beyond our wildest imaginations in the past, this urban “mega greenhouse” is now a very real and viable possibility.
Make no mistake about it, Plantagon is a serious business. What may have started out as a dream is now a full blow reality. While Plantagon is not alone in the efforts for urban agriculture of this scale, larger companies like Plantagon with better access to resources (money, technology) believe that they will be the pace setters for the future of urban food production in cities around the world. This may be true in terms of scale, but the leg work is being done right now by many new hydroponic and aquaponics startup companies and Universities all over the world.
It will be interesting to see this project unfold and to see how well they are able to incorporate this system into the fabric of an urban setting. On paper this project seems like a fantastic idea, which it is, but there is still a tremendous amount of research that has to be done before a “greenhouse” of this size breaks ground in your nearest city center.
Check out this short video. It offers a digital 3D model and interpretation of how this project may look and feel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzim4hTGRQE
Written by Rachel Burmeister, Internship Coordinator 2011-2012
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