Plantscrapers
Contents
Plantscrapers: Transforming Cities into Sustainable Cities
Plantscrapers
Published: July 20, 2017
Updated: April 28, 2017
Author: Rachel Royfman
Topics Editor: Andy Jorgensen
Topics: Improving Air Quality in Megacities, Sustainability, Food Production
Moving Forward to try and attain Sustainable Cities
There are 457 cities that have a population over one million people. Tokyo, Japan has over thirty seven million people residing in the city. Even though cities only occupy four percent of the Earth’s area, it holds more than half of the world’s population. Since cities have such a large population, it is difficult for the area to be environmentally friendly and sustainable. This is the reason why sustainable cities need to be created. A sustainable city, otherwise known as an eco-city, is a city that is able to minimize the amount of energy, food, water, pollution, and waste that is being consumed and produced. An eco-city is also considered a “green” city, so it will try and implement environmentally friendly aspects into its existence. There are many different ways to turn a regular city into an eco-city. One important idea that can be implemented to ensure the sustainability of a city is to start creating plant skyscrapers.
Incorporating Plantscrapers into Cities
What are plantscrapers? Plant skyscrapers, otherwise known as “plantscrapers,” are larger skyscrapers that are filled with crops and plants that grow vertically in cities. These skyscrapers would act as greenhouses for the plants and crops and allow for more oxygen to be produced in cities. It will also be used for farming because crops could potentially be planted on these plantscrapers. This would ensure that the city would be able to feed its population easier and be able to grow their own produce. Plantscrapers promote sustainability because it allows a city to become more environmentally friendly and also be able to produce its own crops. How would plantscrapers be created? Since cities are notoriously famous for having large skyscrapers, it would not be difficult to designate some to the use of vertical growing. Also, since the population has been greatly increasing within cities, buildings have become taller in order to accommodate more people so the same concept would be adapted to incorporate plantscrapers. Plantscrapers could be used for two purposes which include vertical farming and vertical forests.
Benefits of Vertical Farming
Vertical farming is just like regular farming, except it is done vertically instead of on horizontal land. With vertical farming, crops would be planted into the plantscraper without using soil. The crops would then be placed onto multiple different trays and fed with water enriched with nutrients. They would be moved down a central conveyer belt and when they reach the bottom, they would be ready to be harvested. Based off of one plantscraper desgin that is supposed to be built in Sweden, every three square foot patch can produce up to 180 lbs of fresh produce in one year. Also, a twenty-five story design could produce enough produce for 350,000 people. Some other benefits of this design is that no pesticides or chemicals are used while farming these crops. Also, different crops that are not necessarily native to the area can be grown because the atmosphere can be controlled. Unlike regular farming, it would be easier to grow crops in these skyscrapers due to how simple it is to manipulate the environment that they are in. Lastly, there could be a market or grocery store at the first level of the plantscraper that will hold the fresh produce. This will also reduce the cost and pollution of having trucks distribute the produce to other grocery stores. It would also provide a nice area where people in the city can go to buy fresh produce and observe these plantscrapers.
The fact that cities will be able to produce their own food will help alleviate the stress from the Earth. It is difficult to feed such a large population of people, and sometimes there are areas that do not have enough resources to do so. Importing food into a city can also increase the price of the produce, and by using vertical farming it would be easier for a large city to come across the crops. It would lower the price of the produce and also create more jobs for the people living within the city because people will need to harvest the crops. Based off of the Swedish design, it will take about three people to process 10,000 crops every three days. All of this leads to a city becoming more sustainable because the area will be able to produce their own food while also being environmentally conscious.
Benefits of Vertical Forests
Vertical forests is the same concept as vertical farming, except the plantscraper will consist of trees and plants instead of crops and produce. Vertical farming will be beneficial to the city as well as preserving the growth of plants and trees. Many different types of plants can be installed into these vertical forests, which will promote biodiversity. It will also provide a habitat to birds, insects, and other wildlife within the city so that they can continue thriving. There is a vertical forest design that is planning to built in Nanjing, China and will consist of over 1,000 trees and and 2,500 plants. The purpose of this project is to increase the amount of oxygen produced and to also absorb carbon dioxide. Supposedly, a vertical forest will absorb twenty five tons of carbon dioxide a year and will also produce about sixty kilograms of oxygen in one day, which equals 21,900 kg, or about 24 tons of oxygen produced in one year. This will help increase the air quality in large cities since so much pollution comes from those areas. This will overall increase the sustainability of cities as well because it will reduce the pollution that a city produces a year and increase air quality for the people living in the area. Lastly, a vertical forest has the ability to promote more green spaces within large cities. One of the main reasons that cities do not have enough green areas is because there is not enough room for a park or small forest to exist. Vertical forests would provide all of the benefits as green spaces would and it would also conserve space.
Reference
- "Total Number of Cities In The World." Statistic Brain. Statistic Brain, 04 Mar. 2016. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/total-number-of-cities-in-the-world/
- Poulter, Sean. "The Plant Skyscrapers: Giant Greenhouses in City Centres to Herald a New Age of Farming." Daily Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 31 Dec. 2012. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.
- "Stefano Boeri Reveals Plans for Tree-covered Towers in Nanjing." Dezeen. N.p., 05 Apr. 2017. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.
Further Reading
- "Vertical Forest." Stefano Boeri Architetti. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.
https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/portfolios/bosco-verticale/
- Frazier, Ian. "The Vertical Farm." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 03 Jan. 2017. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/09/the-vertical-farm
Citation
- Royfman, Rachel. "Plantscrapers: Tranforming Cities into Sustainable Cities." The Encyclopedia of Earth, 28 Apr. 2017.
