Vertical Fields

Hydroponic farm towers

The Team: Andrei Jipa, Lilia Obletsova, Victoria Hamilton, Kimberley Stott; coordinated by Martin West @RHWL Architects

The brief: The LOFT London Farm Tower Competition was organized by Architecture Workshop in Rome, requiring the design of a vertical farm with a residential use in London's Potters Fields. In the city there is still a strong demand for housing and for public functions in downtown areas where the presence of public transportation makes the site extremely strategic. The city offers the chance to build a real vertical village, including a public plaza, shopping areas, restaurants and residences. Londoners welcome these macro-structures that allow them to experience the city as well as possible. At the same time this project allows people to enjoy both indoor and outdoor activities, regardless of the weather.

The proposal: The Vertical Field is a new formulation of urban living in which individuals and families cohabit with methods of aeroponic food production, a metaphor to traditional self-sufficiency farming where the link between the plot of land and the owners goes beyond simple economics. The open space market on the ground floor, integrated under a raised public space platform is closing the loop of the traditional subsistence agriculture system. The aesthetics of the structure is inspired by the image of crop fields on a landscape out of which extruded vertical field towers emerge.

July 2011