Introduction to Agritecture

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Agritecture is the art, science, and practice of incorporating agriculture into the built environment. This integration can be inside of the building (indoor vertical farming) to maximize the density of growing or outside of it (living walls and rooftop farms) to take advantage of the microclimates that exist through the design of city architecture. Agritecture then is one way of challenging the current industrial scale agriculture by bringing food production to urban, local architectural environments.

Architecture is everywhere around us, if you wander into the wild you will find spaces that have been built by nature in a functional and sustainable way. Simply walking around a city we will find so many different kinds of man-made structures. Architecture has many meanings, some define it as an art, others say it is the planning of useful and enjoyable spaces for human beings. You can give it your own interpretation. Since the spaces we live in influence our behavior and feelings, architecture plays a major role in all of our lives, but have you ever considered how it effects, interacts or could mimic the natural world?

Architecture goes beyond a simple profession or career, it is part of human nature and it has helped define our cultures throughout history. Today it is an area of opportunity. Architecture can help us solve problems in cities and rural areas, improve our quality of life, and take care of our planet by carefully managing natural resources.  

In this section, you will be exploring architectural projects inspired and built using agritecture influences.

At the bottom of the page we have included some questions to help you with your learning and please use the forum to answer the forum questions or to post questions of your own to the community learning with you.

What is architecture?

Innovative ideas on rivers near cities

The coolest buildings are not green

Biomimicry

A short video about it

Or the long one!

Vertical gardens

Benefits of green walls

Urban gardens

Do it yourself!

We can recommend you…

Book: The Rooftop Growing Guide by Annie Novak – This explains about what you need to bear in mind (no pun intended) when you want to grow on a rooftop setting. It is not specifically developed for  vertical farming however it does cover issues like climate, microclimate, weight restrictions etc.