Saturday, February 14, 2009

PLUS, THEY'RE PLEASANTLY PHALLIC

I cringed some months back watching Steven Colbert interview vertical-farming visionary Dickson Despommier (Says Colbert, "You want traditional farms to fail so they have to turn to you with your crazy farm tower!") but of course that's part of Colbert's genius. Bottom line, he provided the Columbia U scientist with unprecedented exposure.
The image above from Blake Kurasek's project, "The Living Skyscraper: Farming the Urban Skyline" offers a glimpse into Despommier's future vertical world of hydroponic food structures built within city limits.

To read substantive material over your head, check out the website Vertical Farm; to get the point while laughing, start with the Colbert interview.

Special thanks to HortIdeas and the wonderful blog, The Rathaus.
at 12:37 PM

7 comments:

  1. Ummm, maybe it's my California roots showing, but - what about earthquakes?? High winds? Tsunami? Methinks the infrastructure could have weakness... maybe a Mayan-ziggurat shape would withstand natural disasters a bit better? Hmmm. There is something very important about this line of thinking though. Will stay tuned.
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  2. Bonnie, Let's hope that by putting his more extreme visions on the table, Despommier will galvanize a more traditional audience to design easier, affordable approaches to vertical farms. It's certainly the only space left...
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  3. When are you going to be on the Colbert Report? You two would make a delightful pair :-)
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  4. Pushed to the extreme so a middle would seem doable I hope. Inspiring links, thanks.
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  5. Will - You have to DO something or BE someone to get on Colbert. Getting laid off doesn't cut it!
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  6. Hmm. Everyone in my landscape architecture studio is working this kind of thing into their designs. This guy might not be visionary, but he certainly is trendy.
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  7. Almost Idaho - My posting this in Feb 2009 is no reflection on how long he's been cooking on the idea. My hunch is he was way ahead of the trend...
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