FLOATING FARM

Studio Theodore Spyropoulos

Tutors Mostafa El-Sayed, Apostolos Despotidis, Aleksandar Bursac

Team Dingyu Hu, Gaojia Chen, Siyuan Wang, Yuxiao Ren

Agriculture is essential for human survival. However, it is extremely striking that, despite the notable technological advancements, food disparities and regional hunger still widely exist. According to the Food Authority, the proportion of vegetable imports in the United Kingdom has exceeded 50% in 2017, while the numbers will keep rising. Furthermore, it is estimated that the nation will face serious farmland crisis by 2030 owing to the shortage of agricultural land, especially in the cities. The current agricultural system is not resourceful enough to resolve the growing concerns of population growth and urbanisation.  

Evidently, the overdependence on land-based cultivation has caused agriculture to be greatly influenced by numerous natural and artificial factors. Although alternative methods like vertical farming have been tried out, they also do not address the fundamental problem of land shortage. There is a need for a shift in perspective: we suggest that we turn our gaze to the sky where there is unlimited, underexplored potential. Technology can make it possible to cultivate crops in the sky.

 As an environment, air contains tremendous energy. It is ubiquitous in nature and can be used as energy or resource and as a basis for plant and animal growth. While people began using wind power to sail, the Buoyant Airborne Turbine technology of the present day offers a highly efficient and flexible technique to harness and utilise wind energy. Likewise, Aeroponics makes it possible to grow plants, or rather vegetables, without soil wherein their roots are suspended in air and periodically irrigated with a nutrient-dense mist. 

The Floating Farm is designed based on these two technological tools. It is essentially an aerial farming system that can feed London by growing half a million planting agents floating over the city while producing energy by charging agents and sustaining itself. The system can also distribute vegetables based on citizens’ real-time needs by picking landing addresses of planting agents based on the existing market locations and crowd concentration. Using London as the test site, we shall explain how the Floating Farm system can be used to meet the urban needs for fresh vegetables and solve its agricultural crisis.