Farming for the Future: Reinventing How You See Agriculture – And Where You Get Your Dinner

Dragonfly: New York City

Paris-based Vincent Callebaut Architectures gives us a glimpse of what urban farming could look like in the future with a series of incredible conceptual projects.

Dragonfly is conceived as a vertical urban farm set in New York City's East River, between Manhattan and Queens. The architects are passionate about using architecture to solve problems like pollution and a dwindling natural food source.

"The ecologic city aims at reintegrating the farming function on the urban scale by emphasizing the role of the urban agriculture in the use and the reuse of natural resources," Callebaut said. "The Dragonfly project challenges the city of New York to rethink its food production."

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This masterpiece of the future would be a place where people live as well as a place where people farm. We're talking about more than gardens and flowers: The architects envision growing oranges, apples, spinach, cherries, mushrooms and more.

Two wing-shaped towers are arranged around a large greenhouse, which holds the fields and orchards. A bee-net like mesh wrapped around the entire structure works to absorb solar energy to supply power. Three wind machines on the northern flank also produce energy. Vertical gardens growing around the wings not only work as natural insulation, but also capture and filter rainwater for reuse.

If you think Dragonfly is a fascinating concept, then click to page 2, where we introduce you to "farmscrapers."

(NEXT>Farmscrapers)

Asian Cairns: Shenzhen, China

Cities consume most of the world's energy, while simultaneously pumping out a high level of carbon dioxide, a main greenhouse gas.

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"Like our Dragonfly project in New York, the aim is to repatriate the countryside in the city and to reintegrate the food production modes," the architects explain. "It recycles everything."

Speaking of recycling, check out page 3, where Callebaut and company reveal big plans for a former industrial dump.

(NEXT>Old Dump, New Life)

Flavours Orchard: Southwest China

If high-rise living isn't your style, but you like the idea of bringing urban farming to the next level, maybe you'd feel more at home in Flavours Orchard, a conceptual community of 45 energy efficient villas built on a smart grid.

The community is proposed for land that once was an industrial wasteland. Just like Callebaut's Dragonfly and Asian Cairns, the idea is to bring agriculture to the heart of the city to support more eco-friendly, sustainable living. Flavour Orchards would include a large community vegetable garden, marshes for rainwater harvesting, wind turbines and even a naturally filtered swimming pool.

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As the architects describe, the theme "is to produce more energy and biodiversity than we consume by recycling" to create a zero-carbon emission city. 

Vincent Callebaut Architectures has a dozen more incredible eco-friendly housing concepts, which you can check out on the firm's website. 

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