Human Habitat: The Impact Farm

The Impact Farm is intentionally designed to take advantage of under-utilized urban space for resource-efficient production of high quality and pesticide-free greens. It combines the latest and most innovative technologies and food production methods with sustainable building materials and design for disassembly. It will be a preview of the future of food production. The concept is to give new life to a used shipping container and use it as a tool for transportation and, subsequently, as a central part of the structure of the vertical farm. All components used in construction are stored and transported in the container.

It consists of an assembly-kit of pre-made components that when they are put together becomes a two-storey vertical hydroponic farm. When the container is “unpacked”, and the structure is in place and installed, the production area will cover 538 sq.ft. By applying simple construction methods the entire building process only takes 10 days and it is easy to disassemble and move to another location. It is designed for the purpose of temporality in order to best utilize the unused urban areas. At the same time the design method secures a high degree of flexibility and potential scalability. The foundation of our design is C2C and the circular economy. We use materials that are either re-used or designed to circulate within the production circle.

The unit is self- sufficient in clean energy and water by harvesting sun and wind, and collecting rainwater. It has also been the intention to create a space that, in addition to ensuring a high and stable yield of high quality produce, also stimulates social interaction and strengthens the cohesiveness of the community. Food connects people, and the intention is both to provide a #green space that brings nature back into our cities in the dense urban environment. The unit is designed in order to create an economically sustainable business model that can both ensure resource-efficient local food production, creategreen jobs and increased local economic activity. The Impact Farm is a real tangible solution to some of the biggest challenges of our time and represents an urban renewal where aesthetics, sustainability and productivity go hand-in-hand.