BambooPonic

Aprilli Design Studio’s Urban SkyFarm is a living machine, helping improve environmental quality by filtering water & air, providing edible greens & producing renewable energy. Dense urban developments will benefit from the additional green space by feeling a reduction in heat accumulation, storm water runoff & carbon dioxide. As a net zero facility, its aim is to operate only with renewable solar & wind energy. Harvesting from hydroponic systems, vertical gardens & farming decks, all goods are processed & distributed directly on the farm!

The Urban SkyFarm is a vertical solution that utilizes hydroponic systems as substitution of soil-based agricultural extensions. By using the hydroponic system, the Urban Skyfarm can provide hundreds of light weight farming decks which can be conditioned with supplementary heating, lighting and moisturizing while having the natural light as the main resource.

In order to gain maximum exposure to sunlight, the vertical garden lifts the main outdoor vegetation area higher up in the air in a section known as the “leaf” where mostly medium-based hydroponic fruit trees and larger scale vegetables needing more exposure to outside air and sunlight can be produced. The lower portions are controlled indoor environments using solution-based hydroponic farming with artificial lighting which are more suitable for indoor products such as basil, arugula, bok choy, etc..

It also serves as a community garden hub where urban dwellers can easily visit, grow their own vegetations and participate in the final production by bringing it home or selling it to the community. The central food market will host local mobile farmer markets around the neighborhood which will circulate through the city to facilitate producing and trading local food products grown by the community.

Urbio

"Urbio is a recyclable product that is made out of a lightweight and durable polypropylene. Coupled with uber-strong neodymium magnets and a variety of sizes, Urbio is a diverse and dependable solution for urban gardening and small space organization."

How Leonardo DiCaprio Inspired a Stunning Bridge That Doubles as a Park

Many of England’s bridges have become pop culture icons—London Bridge inspired a song known by kindergarteners the world over and the Tower Bridge has its own Lego set. However, if architect Thomas Heatherwick has his way, the River Thames will soon have a new plant-filled pedestrian crossing inspired in part by Leonardo DiCaprio. (More on that in a second.)

The Garden Bridge will span the 1,204 foot-wide river and contain 2 million pounds of soil, giving root to 270 trees, as well as innumerable shrubs, bushes, and flowers. The project is led by actress Joanna Lumley, star of the cult favorite Absolutely Fabulous. Inspired to commemorate Princess Diana’s death, she labored for over a decade establishing a trust to secure financing and political support.

In 2012 she turned to architect Thomas Heatherwick, who crafted the cauldron for the London Olympics and successfully redesigned the city’s iconic double-decker buses, to help make it a reality.

This is no mean feat. “We need to hold up this large weight, complete with worms, rainwater and decomposing leafy mulch, without letting the bridge structure become visually more important than the garden,” says Heatherwick. “To do this and not resort to tall steel columns and cables that compete with the trees on the bridge, we are bunching all our structure underneath the garden around the two river columns.”

So how does Leo figure in? Distributing the weight to the two pylons necessitates an hourglass shape. The perimeter could have been smoothed, but Heatherwick saw potential in a saw-toothed solution. He was inspired by the scene in Titanic when DiCaprio took Kate Winslet to the bow of their doomed ship and proclaimed, “I’m the king of the world!”

Adding these ridges to the perimeter creates semi-private “balconies” allowing couples to reenact the scene. His hope is that this feature, and others, provide places to pass the time, kiss, and even propose while traversing the city.

The design thinking that goes beyond movie catchphrases, romantic notions and the landscape has been carefully orchestrated. Plants near the entryways on either side will be wild common river varieties like birches and willows. As pedestrians proceed, stately oaks and manicured shrubs will dot the landscape, and the center of the bridge will have little vegetation to create better views of the river and skyline.

The concept is conceptually similar to other elevated gardens like New York’s High Line or Paris’ Promenade plantée, but the technical challenge is ratcheted up given its location over the river and the new construction that’s required.

Structural engineering firm Arup and landscape designer Dan Pearson helped give the concept form, while dealing with the unique technical challenges of a green bridge. “We will only be using plants which we feel will cope with the special challenges posed by a garden in the middle of a river,” says Pearson, who also promises that there will be species that thrive in each season, giving residents and tourists something to look at no matter when they cross.

Heatherwick’s design takes advantage of modern materials and simulation, but he believes it’s more of a throwback to the London Bridge of Henry VIII’s reign. During that time the bridge contained homes, shops, and was a center of commerce and community as well as a river crossing.

However, since the last building was demolished in 1762, bridges have become more utilitarian. “It’s not surprising that for centuries it has been treated like an obstacle to breach, rather than an opportunity for people to spend time above a vast piece of nature in the heart of our city,” says Heatherwick.

The Garden Bridge is expected to cost $245 million, and Lumley has already raised half that amount from private backers. London Mayor Boris Johnson has promised another $50 million, and if the trust set up to fund the project can harvest the balance of the seed money, it could be ready by the spring of 2017.

Plant production could decline as climate change affects soil nutrients

Image: Ollivier Girard/CIFOR

As drylands of the world become even drier, water will not be the only resource in short supply. Levels of nutrients in the soil will likely be affected, and their imbalance could affect the lives of one-fifth of the world’s population.

That includes people living in Arizona, who may be in for a dustier future.

The findings are presented in a studypublished in Nature that details how soil changes may occur and discusses the implications. Co-author Matthew Bowker, assistant professor of forest soils and ecosystem ecology at Northern Arizona University, was involved with the project since 2009.

Bowker explained that most of the 17 nutrients that plants need to grow to their potential are soil resources, such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The statistical model he helped develop for the study suggests that as the climate becomes more arid, nitrogen will decrease and phosphorus will increase.

“Both are essential for plant growth, and both are typical components of fertilizer, but both need to be around in the right quantities for plant growth to proceed most efficiently,” Bowker said.

“It’s like a situation where you’re making hamburgers but run out of beef. You can’t just slip in another bun and still produce a hamburger.”

Drylands, which are defined by predominantly lower levels of moisture, cover about 41 percent of the earth’s surface. The study suggests that people who depend on those ecosystems for crops, livestock forage, fuel and fiber will find their resources increasingly restrained.

In Arizona, Bowker said, the projected decrease in plant production could magnify the impact of dust storms, which have been increasing in recent decades.

“We can probably expect more and more dust in the air,” he said.

The project involved visits by research teams in 16 countries to 224 locations on every continent except Antarctica. Bowker led one of the sampling teams, which visited 10 study sites in northern Arizona and Utah. Those sites ranged from dry, grassy shrublands with low precipitation to relatively wet sagebrush ecosystems.

“This is a testament to the power of networked science,” Bowker said, adding that it would have been “prohibitively expensive” for any one researcher or research group to complete the project.

Source

Further reading:

Soil biodiversity crucial to future land management and response to climate change

Global Warming May Affect Soil Microbe Survival, With Unknown Consequences On Soil Fertility and Erosion

This new radical water pump is a concept developed by several industrial design students that poses a new threat to the current diesel pump market. Within this contest by GREENPEACE, a world known sustainable and environmental organization, we have a concept that would allow a reusable fuel for farmers in developing countries or in any rural setting. The pump features a hydrogen pellet fuel, that is not only safe to handle and efficient, but also reusable and sustainable. The pellets are able to be re-stocked with hydrogen to be able to be consumed within the engine again and again. This new idea is a groundbreaker for sustainable crop irrigation. Our group would love the feedback and ratings and only takes one minute to sign up and rate our project. We love all the feedback that you may offer and any comments you may have to help us win this competition and spread the word on an awesome new, and well DESIGNED, idea. Thank you so much!

Irrigation by Joostdewall on Flickr.

Hydroponics Infographic