Image from Except Integrated Sustainability showing a rendering of the “Polydome” net zero urban farming
We all know how incredible nature is. Lately at ASK* we have been reflecting on the idea that anything truly sustainable cannot be compartmentalized or siloed. Everything needs balance through expansion and contraction, life and death, dynamic ever-changing synergies that provide and take nourishment in balance. This is true from the human body, to the urban environments we create. We have realized that nothing man-made is TRULY sustainable unless it is designed to be part of an alive, diverse, self correcting, closed loop ecosystem. EVERYTHING that is being created to be in our world should be thought of within the context of “what ecosystem is this a part of? What role does it play? What does it use and what does it nourish?”
We found this incredible article/interview from 2012 on a net zero farming idea called “Polydome”. The article is an interview explaining the concept of the urban food system as an Ecosystem. Gladek goes a step further, explaining how the urban farming ecosystem can be integrated into the other “urban eco-systems” as well, such as using excess heat from the greenhouses to heat residential homes.
Polydome is a concept for a new kind of polyculture greenhouse that achieves very high yields by strategically interweaving crops and livestock. With its diverse outputs (over 50 crops, two mushroom varieties, chickens, eggs, fish and honey), even a small Polydome system can provide a richly varied food supply for a large population. We calculate that with the yields and diverse outputs shown in our model, Polydomes could allow most western cities to produce most of their own food within city borders.
Eva Gladek - CEO of Metabolic
In this article, the innovative Eva Gladek states eloquently what the main barrier was 9 years ago, and still is today:
“even if we were off by a factor of ten, it is clear that commercial-scale urban agriculture is feasible, even economically speaking. And Polydome is only one of several approaches that could work. What we're missing is the investment, political support and urban farmers who are willing to take this task on. Knowledge and social barriers have become more of an issue than technology at this point.”
Eva Gladek - CEO of Metabolic
We believe the same problem exists in creating truly sustainable buildings and cities. Within the field of the built environment, we have the technology and the knowledge to have a completely different world. What we need now, is for enough people and municipalities to be educated in sustainable architecture that there is a growing belief in the possibility that our cities can be THIS incredible (and they absolutely can be).
Image from Except Integrated Sustainability showing a “neighbourhood context” of a city that thinks like an ecosystem.
At ASK* one of our research projects is to figure out how to overcome this “belief” barrier, and what the best way to educate and advocate, so that people are individually motivated and inspired to get into action! More on ecosystems later…