Locavore Fantasia

“Locavore Fantasia” shows that vertical farming can be about more than engineering food to grow indoors. Rather than isolate the farm from the city, Locavore Fantasia makes the farm a part of it.

A stepped residential tower, housing migrant farmers, extends terraced shelves for in-soil growing (as well as a small golf course). The tower leans back over a public space with a farmer’s market, effectively doubling the ground plane. It is supported – literally – by culture, with “sculpture-structures” that enliven the public space below.

The speculative project was commissioned by New York magazine for a vacant lot in lower Manhattan.