[mdiederi]

Proposal to build the world's first vertical farm.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-las-vegas-vertical-farm-1.2b.html

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/Next1.2bb.jpg

Is this feasible? :shrug:

[Grumpy]

Is this feasible? :shrug:

You can ask the same question for the planned vertical graveyard.

[PuyoPiyo]

That is very interesting... Bringing the farms to the URBAN instead of rurals!

[Aleks]

There was a thread about this already. Isn't that the same design as the one that was proposed for NY?

[brickell]

I just can't see how they budget $15M from tourism. Who would people pay that much, when they can see real farms for free?

[worldwide]

this is a very good idea. cities should be getting as much food as possible from local sources, and with desert cities and global warming and peak oil this may become the standard in the future

[mdiederi]

There was a thread about this already. Isn't that the same design as the one that was proposed for NY?
Ah, I didn't see that thread, but maybe it is the same design and the developer is shopping it around.

[Rico Rommheim]

This is a great idea! Revolutionnary!

[LivingIn622]

Casinos make alot. This is a great idea, if it really makes as much as expected.

[aaron38]

I think it's a great idea. A steel structure and a glass curtainwall makes a perfect greenhouse. Hydroponics means you don't need heavy soil, the water can be recycled.

And with the syrocketing cost of oil, transporting fresh produce hundreds of miles to major cities is becomming incredibly expensive, which means that significant cost savings could be possible with this approach.

And with the loss of our manufacturing overseas, there is a ton of cheap blighted industrial land around our cities that can be used for these agricultural towers. The economics of these should work out favoribly.

I really don't see them as a tourist draw except for class field trips. They wouldn't really be located in the best part of town.

[mdiederi]

No real project, not even a vision, just a concept being kicked around.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/gaming/2008/jan/10/vegas-building-rumor-watch-skyscraper-farm/
No wonder there was nothing in the planning agendas or even the local press.

[Exodus]

I just can't see how they budget $15M from tourism. Who would people pay that much, when they can see real farms for free?:haha: You would think, but at the rate they are building stupid sprawldivisions we might actually need that one day.:(

[Canadian Mind]

Wouldn't there be difficulties getting water up high?

Also, unless one floor of such a project was several hectares in size, I can't see the efficiency of such a thing.

[Plompy Lfeata]

Wouldn't there be difficulties getting water up high?

they would use pumps i think...but if they can shoot concrete up over a thousand feet i dont think water will be a problem. id love to see something like this an a really big scale taking over past industrial zones. and maybe somone should tell the amish about it since they seem to have trouble finding land nowadays

Also i have to wonder how they plan to pick all the food they would grow in a huge farm building. theres no way your getting a tractor up there, so im guessing they use the always ready immigrant?

[Raraavis]

Even with food and fuel prices at near record highs this is not economically viable. Unless you can develop some kind of genetically engineered food that can only be grown indoors that people will pay very high prices for. Also the cost of land in cities, and the cost of steel and other building materials are so high that even if a crop needed to be grown indoors it would be cheaper to build single level or even low-rise green houses outside the city.

If someone comes up with an economic model that makes 30 story greenhouses profitable than I would love to see them. They would be very cool.

[HeyHey]

Unless they're growing marijuana I don't see how they're going to have anywhere near $25 million in revenue from produce. If each floor is 1/3 of an acre that only give 10 acres total area for produce to grow and be supported. There are thousands and thousands of farmers in the US that struggle to make a living with 100 acres!

[arkhitektor]

If Las Vegas really needed its own greenhouse to grow food in, they could far more feasably and cheaply just build a giant one-level greenhouse on some of the millions of acres of empty desert that surround the city. The idea of a 33-story farm, makes little sense, even where land is scare, but in Las Vegas of all places- it is completely unfeasable.

[Laurent]

Wouldn't there be difficulties getting water up high?

Also, unless one floor of such a project was several hectares in size, I can't see the efficiency of such a thing.

It all depends on what they're growing. As HeyHey was saying pot would be profitable - and although we know they won't be growing that, they might have found some other very expensive thing that is profitable. Maybe they'll grow exotic fruits or something (nowhere near the profit margins of weed, but who knows . . . ) My guess is that the stuff will be super boosted with fertilizer & bioteched to the max so that they could get like one crop per week or something. Freshness & availability will also be unbeatable (for their local urban clients), so they'll definitely be able to charge a huge premium for those aspects. Finally, I think that those last two points are the real drivers for profit margins in this project. Tourists in Vegas have money and want things now . . . they might be ready to pay a hell of lot more than we'd expect. Anyway, I don't know - just rambling ideas

[Surrealplaces]

Proposal to build the world's first vertical farm.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-las-vegas-vertical-farm-1.2b.html

Is this feasible? :shrug:

I guess we won't know how feasible it ois until it's running, but it is one hell of a cool idea.

[Surrealplaces]

If Las Vegas really needed its own greenhouse to grow food in, they could far more feasably and cheaply just build a giant one-level greenhouse on some of the millions of acres of empty desert that surround the city. The idea of a 33-story farm, makes little sense, even where land is scare, but in Las Vegas of all places- it is completely unfeasable.

lol!, that's a good point there is plaenty of land nearby. A vertical greenhouse would seemingly make more sense in a place like Tokyo.

[Trantor]

You can ask the same question for the planned vertical graveyard.

the one from Santos?
http://br.geocities.com/cemite/MemorialPredioNovo.jpg



off topic, but looking for the pic above, I noticed the vertical graveyard ALREADY exists in Santos, but in a smaller scale. The new project is the 30 storeys graveyard tower. That other section, which is 12 storeys tall, already exists since 1983!!

these are actual photos!
http://www.microeducacao.pro.br/Santos/FotosSantos/CemiterioVertical1.jpg
http://www.novomilenio.inf.br/santos/lendas/h0204f.jpg
http://www.novomilenio.inf.br/santos/lendas/h0204d.jpg
http://www.microeducacao.pro.br/Santos/FotosSantos/CemiterioVertical2.jpg




I think the Santos vertical cemitery owners and the guys proposing this vertical farm should meet.

Maybe the two buildings can be joined into one!! One story, human cadavers. In story above, plants, feeding from the human cadavers!!

[Surrealplaces]

For the vertical graveyard, do they have to keep the building at a cool temperature?

[Trantor]

^I dont think so. Notice the "drawers" are exposed. The corridors are open, like balconies. I think there are cooling systems for the drawers... not for the whole building... I mean... the dead are kept cool... the living, in the balconies, do not have cooling.

[Laurent]

A 30 storey graveyard skyscraper . . . I really couldn't have imagined a project like this one! Unless we'd have been talking about a sci fi flick set in a century or so. Thanks for the post - very interesting.

[myshtern]

Unless they're growing marijuana I don't see how they're going to have anywhere near $25 million in revenue from produce. If each floor is 1/3 of an acre that only give 10 acres total area for produce to grow and be supported. There are thousands and thousands of farmers in the US that struggle to make a living with 100 acres!

Advantages of Vertical Farming
Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres)
No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests
All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers
VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water
VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services
VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface
VF converts black and gray water into potable water by collecting the water of
evapotranspiration
VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible
parts of plants and animals
VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.)
VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers
VF creates sustainable environments for urban centers
VF creates new employment opportunities
We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on
earth
VF may prove to be useful for integrating into refugee camps
VF offers the promise of measurable economic improvement for tropical and subtropical
LDCs. If this should prove to be the case, then VF may be a catalyst in helping to reduce or even reverse the population growth of LDCs as they adopt urban agriculture as a strategy for sustainable food production.
VF could reduce the incidence of armed conflict over natural resources, such as water
and land for agriculture

http://www.verticalfarm.com/

[Laurent]

^ wow! fascinating stuff man!

[WestCoast]

a big thing I always forget, is how far away food comes from.

I mean, diesel trucks have to truck it from all over the place to get to my plate.

You grow it locally, eat it locally, you eliminate a lot of waste.

Hope these things 'sprout' up all over if the concept works :)

[MolsonExport]

back in the 1960's (or perhaps early 70's) National Geographic had an article on the future of farming, and they included drawings of vertical farms (vertical cow sheds, connected to a city by monorails, etc.).

[ozone]

This was originally a non-site specific proposal. I don't know how the poster got the impression it was a Las Vegas proposal?
In theory it's possible to grow much of what we eat indoors...but is it economically fessible?

[M II A II R II K]

The linked article has Las Vegas in the title about building this.