Farm Park: Governors Island, New York
Productive, sustainable and efficient project for feeding NYC
Productive, sustainable and efficient project for feeding NYC
Farm Park aims at re-thinking and re-inventing the way megalopolies feed themselves addressing the issue from an unconventional and highly sustainable point of view. Governors Island in NYC is the testing ground for an economically viable, and sustainable strategy for producing food without generating the byproducts that our cities generate today, as well as for a comprehensive learning experience.
FARM PARK's first tier goal is PRODUCTION: production of food itself, of pharmaceuticals, cosmeceuticals, alternative energy production, but most important of all: production of IDEAS. Farm Park is aimed at creating socially conscious consumers and citizens. Vertical Farms are the engine of the whole system. As the geneticist and microbiologist Nina Fedoroff would say, "agriculture is more devastating ecologically than anything else we could do except for pouring concrete on the land". These "machines far farming" provide a valuable and profitable solution to this mayor issue. Using intensely farmed indoor space methods (aquaponics and aeroponics), Vertical Farms with a footprint of 10,000 sqft can feed 330 people as opposed to 1 fed using outdoor farming.
In opposition to other Vertical Farms case study projects, these machines for farming are not examples of sexy design buildings, because they are thought to be highly engineered, fast to build, extremely efficient, productive and smart. The smartness of these machines for farming comes mainly from the low need for primary resources. Rain water is collected through the new topography of the island, and the roof top of each vertical farm. In the food production system 95% of the water is recycled within the building, cleaned by algae, and receives nutrients thanks to fish farming. Solar panels allow for collection and storage of solar energy, and energy is as well collected through wave and tidal energy harvesting. In addition, the system has proven to be a profitable investment as well. The economic evaluation of the project results in the possibility of marketing organic products such as tomatoes at a price 40 cents lower per pound !han the non-organic tomatoes price today. Moreover, a much higher revenue could be given by the production of pharmaceuticals and cosmeceuticals.
Nevertheless, the highest value of the project still resides in it's educational power, provided not only by the research facilities in the Farm Park, but also by the Urban Farming Park, the Great Lawn area, the sports facilities that allow far a new perspective, and the possibility far the public to tour the vertical farms and learn about the new production methods. The reception part of the program is also thought as an active learning experience where citizens and tourist could eat the local products in restaurants and cafes, could learn how to cook their favorite vegetables, could farm small plots of land growing seasonal products, that would not harm the land thanks to their natural seasonal cycle, and could experience the spectacle of "living and eating local" in a non idealistic but still responsible way.
Project group:
Breanna Carlson (AAD Columbia University)
Peter Katz (RED Columbia University)
Georgina Lalli (AAD Columbia University)
Pedro Zevallos (RED Columbia University)
