Summary
Why do we discuss building typologies? For decades, data on land use, reliance on hydrocarbon energy, soil degradation from extensive fertiliser use, and fertility changes due to climate effects have clearly shown conventional agriculture is under immense pressure to feed the global population. Currently 30% of the world’s land mass is dedicated to food production. By 2075, an additional area equivalent to the size of Australia will need to be converted from natural to productive land.
Today’s food supply chain is a complex global network, interconnected by energy-intensive transportation, storage, refrigeration, and processing systems. These elements account for 30% of total primary energy supply (TPES) and a similar percentage of CO₂eq greenhouse gas emissions.
The significant resource consumption of conventional agriculture and the complexity of the global food supply chain underpin the concept of the vertical farm, if defined as the building typology of the 21st century. As a structural component of urban systems, vertical farms offer the potential to close material and energy loops, becoming exemplars of the circular economy. This approach preserves natural resources and strengthens urban sub-economic networks. Why do we struggle to accept that hyper-local food production contributes to disburden an impressive list of exacerbating problems?
About the Speaker
Daniel is an architect by training. He studied in Vienna at the University of Technology, the University of Applied Arts, and the Academy of Fine Arts, where he presented his diploma on vertical farming for London. He received his doctorate in technical sciences, with his thesis on the “Contribution of Vertical Farms to Increase the Overall Energy Efficiency of Cities” developed at the Graz University of Technology, at the institute for Buildings and Energy.
He is the founder and CEO of the Vienna-based vertical farm institute, a company dedicated to developing proposals to activate food-producing spaces on already sealed surfaces. The multidisciplinary team covers expertise from architecture to agricultural sciences and energy. The vfi is embedded in an international network of companies and academia, covering essential focal points across the entire food supply chain.
