Vancouver’s Incredible Harvest Green Tower

Vancouver wants to become the most sustainable city in the world, and if concepts like the Harvest Green Tower come to pass, they’ll be well on their way. This incredible vertical farm was designed by Romses Architects as part of the city’s 2030 Challenge, and it would have a tower for growing fruits and vegetables, a livestock grazing plane, a dairy farm, transit lines and more.

From Inhabitat:

The tower consists of interlocking tubes that grow various fruits and vegetables, house chickens and contain an aquaponic fish farm. On top of the vertical growing tower is a rainwater cistern to collect and help water all the plants and animals. At the base of the tower is a livestock grazing plain, as well as a bird habitat and boutique sheep and goat dairy facility. Underneath that is a grocery store, farmer’s market and Harvest Tower Restaurant. Renewable energy is produced from rooftop mounted wind turbines and photovoltaic glazing on the building with the additional help of geothermal heat pumps and methane generation from composting.

Not only would the tower produce local, organic food, but it would also support people with live/work units off to the side of the tower, an educational center, and a seed lab. The base of the tower features a transit hub along with an underground parking lot and shared car co-op. The tower would play an important role in the production of locally grown foods, provide urban employment opportunities and contribute sustainable density to Vancouver.

Structures like this make so much sense. Why import food from hundreds or even thousands of miles away when you can take advantage of tall buildings and grow vertically, right there within the community? It’s exciting to know that soon, concepts like the Harvest Green Tower will be a reality and urban living will become truly sustainable in so many ways.

Link [Inhabitat]

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