Imagine a city with crops on every rooftop. This might seem odd at first, but 80% of food will be consumed in cities by 2050, which means city-goers need to become city-growers if we want to have resilience in the wake of food supply chain shortages. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw firsthand what happens when the supply chain breaks down. Not limited to just helping our grocery stores stay stocked during disasters, crops on buildings may tackle the problem of food deserts, urban areas with limited or no immediate access to fresh food, by having a farm up the street or just upstairs on the roof.
Additionally, urban farming on buildings may integrate into building systems- imagine runoff water being used as graywater in bathrooms, lunch scraps being composted for soil, and radiant building heat keeping plants warm in winter months. Building-integrated agriculture would be using the building itself to make urban farming as sustainable as possible.
We want to find out if building-integrated agriculture can work for commercial food production and we hope to uncover the benefits and barriers to farming in cities. We’ve just submitted a proposal to dive in and research this cutting-edge possibility. This proposal is being led by Dr. Gwynne Mhuireach, a research assistant professor in the Institute who has explored microbiomes of our food systems (and is herself a farmer) together with collaborators in horticulture from WSU and OSU and support from design professionals at Perkins&Will, SRG, FFA and PAE.
These types of creative building solutions are essential to creating a more sustainable, resilient, and safe future for us all, and they are also our favorite kind of fun!