Can you imagine living in a farm in a skyscraper?
The Farmhouse Project might be exactly that. This project by Precht, an architectural firm from Austria, tries to deliver a true farm-to-table experience right from a skyscraper. This is just the latest project from a portfolio that does focus on structures that are connected with nature.
The apartments are built based on traditional houses with an A-frame. 3 walls offer both shape and support. In the inside layer, everything is finished and it houses pipes and electricity. The middle layer includes insulation and structure. Water supply and gardening elements make up the third outside layer.
There are countless designs on the market at the moment when it comes to multi-story architecture that tries to incorporate an ecological approach. Most of the efforts are just some superficial applications that maintain structural precedence instead of a focus on the environment. Most of the greenery we see is just something like aesthetic window dressing. In the Farmhouse, this is different since greenery is fully included in the design.
Precht declared:
“Our motivation for ‘the Farmhouse’ is personal. Two years ago we relocated our office from the centre of Beijing to the mountains of Austria. We live and work now off the grid and try to be as self-sufficient as somehow possible. We grow most of the food ourselves and get the rest from neighboring farmers. We have now a different relation to food. A tomato from your garden tastes different then the one shipped around the globe. We are aware that this life-style is not an option for everyone, so we try to develop projects, that brings food back to cities.”
Gardening and houseplants keep growing in popularity so we are faced with more interest than ever in modern culture in a nature-devoid world. This is why Precht’s project does seem really interesting since it combines gardening, water treatment, solar power, hydroponics and structural elements in a tower that looks quite great.
Would you like to live in such a home? There can be problems like pests but with proper maintenance, this is definitely something that we might end up seeing more of in the future.