Urban Farming : Top Job Of The Future?

Ever make mud pies when you were growing up? These days, kids are as likely to be getting their hands dirty in the vegetable garden. Which could be a professional asset for them in the future! Urban farmers will be sought after, as futurists explain in this interesting article. Architects, like Sine Lindholm who created this Growing Sphere, are also considering the implications of a boom in Urban Agriculture.

“Small artisan farmers will continue to grow in numbers as urban farming becomes a small but significant part of the food chain,” says Tankersley, a forecaster who believes that individuals and companies will spring up to teach and assist amateur urban farmers lead a healthier and more eco-conscious life. “Though technology continues to move the world into the virtual space, the 21st century may see the return of local farming due to the number of people living in urban areas and the increasing awareness of the detrimental environmental impacts of industrial farming”.

The green world is actually becoming more and more appealing to young people. Many are starting to turn their back on a virtual life to get more engaged with real life, and plants are a beautiful medium to express creativity, not to mention connecting with the deeper meaning of farming, with its roots in health, ecology and spirituality.

Design is also embracing the green. We are seeing the world of design producing interesting and useful objects (check these super clever growing beds by Noocity) and spaces (like restaurants with gardens/ vertical gardens attached to them, or inside them – check out just one such example here. All of which reflect these changing priorities.

The Growing Sphere by Sine Lindholm, a Swedish architect, won a prize at the Chart Art Fair in the category Urban Farming. The sphere functions as a growth activator for plants, and a shelter for the visitor.

 “The pavillon enhances the fair’s relationship with vegetation by inviting the visitor into an intimate world, where only the visitor and the vegetation exists. The pavillon, built as a sphere, invokes the idea of a vibrant cosmos – a green globe. The visitor shares the same seat as the plants, in the sense that people and vegetation are equals and coexist in the same cycle of life”. Inspiring, don’t you think?

Click here to see a video about Europe’s largest urban farm.

And here to see another example of great green architecture.