Dubai Double: Food City

Another one from Dubai - a large scale proposal spotted via amongst other sources, the ASLA blog The Dirt is a new development that marketing must have spent days coming up with. The aptly named 'Food City', by Green Concepts Landscape Architecture (GCLA), aims for maximized green space and production through a variety of means, including, as reported in some great coverage by Inhabitat: "...the marriage of landscapes and urbanism“. Their project integrates a variety of proposals to decrease overall energy use — concentrated solar collectors, towers covered in thin-film photovoltaic cells, piezoelectric pads in pedestrian areas, and methane harvesting through sewage percolation tanks."






:: images via Inhabitat

I guess for an area that currently imports over 90% of their food, the cost-benefit may actually pencil out in Dubai, but the costs for food production in many of these vertical farming proposals seems insane. The gauntlet of measures thrown at this project perhaps isn't something that is optional, but necessary in arid climates with water scarcity (hear that US Southwest?) The water issue is covered by another bunch of potential technologies as well as the project "...also proposes water conservation measures critical to off-the-grid survival in water-starved Dubai, like atmospheric water harvesting, solar desalination through concentrated solar collectors, grey water recycling, and application of hydroponic sand to minimize water loss. "

The real proof will be how much you pay for a head of lettuce spawned in Food City.