“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.