Vincent Callebaut's 'arboricole' is an urban hanging garden
Snippet: The design was part of ‘imagine angers’, a competition that called innovative proposals to transform the western french city. vincent callebaut was passionate to undertake a project in ‘europe’s plant capital’ and devised this dynamic concept, which, in many ways, epitomizes his hopes for the city — and perhaps the urban landscape as a whole. to develop the scheme, callebaut closely collaborated with bouygues immobilier, a french real estate developer, along with the landscape firm sempervirens, who was assisted by the INRA (french national institute of agricultural research).
Read the full article and see more images here on Design Boom
Billionaire Larry Ellison launches a hydroponic farming startup
Snippett: Billionaire Oracle Corp. cofounder Larry Ellison this week launched his latest startup, which will focus on automated, hydroponic indoor food production.
Los Angeles-based Sensei plans to build 10 greenhouses, totaling 200,000 square feet, on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Ellison owns 98 percent of the island.
"What I learned at NASA basically has been my guiding principle in my research, which is achieving sustainability and maximizing performance, meaning crop productivity per unit resource used," Cuello adds. "The bottom line is we need to be able to come up with an innovation or innovations that enable us to produce more food with less use of resources."
A few plants can make any home feel more lively, vibrant, and peaceful. There are endless benefits to having more houseplants, from improved health and mood to a greater sense of home satisfaction. And perhaps the most unique and creative way to fill your house with low-maintenance plants is with an indoor vertical garden.
Besides being a show-stopping centerpiece for any room, a wall-hanging bursting with deep green succulents is actually a healthy home addition. Here are a few reasons why you should make an indoor vertical garden for your home.
India's Farmers Could Be Making More Money Soon, With The Help Of Clever Agritech Startups
Snippet: This prompted the 36-year old agripreneur to come up with a solution where farmers make up to 25% profit on procurement and can purchase inputs at wholesale prices. This way, around 80% of the consumer price was getting funnelled back into the rural economy. Layman Agro Ventures now supplies fresh vegetables, fruits and milk directly from farms to 40 apartment complexes as well as leading hotels such as JW Marriott, Lemontree, Accor Ibis and Radisson Blue, in Coimbatore. Laymen Agro Ventures is growing at 30% every month and the startup enjoys a customer 95% retention for its delivery of farm fresh milk.
3D-printed cabin by emerging objects is made from living, plant-filled tiles
Snippet: The exterior is clad in a total of 4,500 tiles of two types. on the roof and adjacent walls, the 3D-printed ceramic ‘seed stitch’ tiles serve as a rainscreen. using a g-code to control each line of clay as it was printed, the studio created a loopy texture where, due to the machine’s marginal errors and the material’s behavior, each tile is unique. on the front facade, the planter tiles offer pockets for succulents to grow, forming a living wall of vegetation that blends the cabin within its surroundings.
Read the full article and see more images here on Design Boom
Snippet: In the early 2010s, du Toit circled back to hydroponics. He created Extreme Green Farms and started growing lettuce hydroponically in a leased space. From the very beginning, he used CropKing’s controllers and pumps, and he bought seed and fertilizer from the company. Later, he bought many of his structures and hydroponic systems from CropKing.
Read more about Extreme Greens Farm and their experience with CropKing here on Greenhouse Management
UNStudio launches a tech startup to “revolutionize” architectural technology
Snippet: UNStudio is no stranger to futuristic concepts or designs, having built an undulating train station for Arnhem in the Netherlands, proposed a revolutionary new urban-rural farming system, and designed a Zaha-esque cable car system for Gothenburg, Sweden. Now, even though UNSense will be run as a separate sister company, UNStudio will develop “‘hardware’ for the built environment, while UNSense, by contrast, uses very different expertise to develop ‘software’ based applications.”
A’s unveil The Farm, another new Coliseum feature for 2018
Snippet: So what makes the Farm different from other gardens, pools, and special features at stadiums around the league? This garden is legitimately “Rooted In Oakland,” and not simply because of its location. To make the Farm happen, the A’s have partnered with Acta Non Verba, an East Oakland nonprofit whose mission is to create safe outdoor areas for people in the community to enjoy.
Snippet: A rendering for the project depicts the conversion of the nine-story building at the center of City Campus, a former hospital, into a facility with a research and development lab, office space, public gallery, classrooms and rooftop farm. Quorum Architects is leading the project design.
Smart Surfaces Pave the Way for Healthy, Wealthy Cities
Snippet: A recent study by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is one of the first to research the costs and benefits of smart surface technologies, including cool roofs, green roofs, solar polar, urban trees and reflective pavement. The study focused on El Paso, Texas, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The results: Across the board, using smart technologies citywide, and especially in low-income neighborhoods, produced financial benefits that exceeded costs.
Canadian Modular Farms expand to Australia with vertical hydroponic farm
Snippet: Modular Farms Co is a company from Canada that is now expanding into Australia. The first permanently located ‘Modular Farm’ in Australia is now located at Eat Street Northshore in Brisbane. Inside it features a vertical hydroponic farm that will help provide fresh herbs and vegetables to the numerous food vendors located within the food and entertainment precinct there truly encompassing the farm to fork ethos.
Paris Plans a Suburban Forest Five Times the Size of Central Park
Snippet: Covering the dirtier areas with pollutant-absorbent trees such as birch and oak would ultimately do much to clean the soil, although some pockets might be kept off limits. The rest of the space, meanwhile, would be transformed into a broad woodland crisscrossed with trails and bridleways. Functioning as both an carbon sink and as a noise and pollution screen against the highways that thread through the area, the forest would still be far more than the sum of its parts. That’s because it lies in the gap between two ancient forests couched on the higher ground—the forests of Saint Germain-en-Laye and Montmorency. When mature, the new woods would provide a forest carpet linking these two woodlands and the banks of the River Seine and the River Oise, creating a seamless, protected habitat for plants and wildlife.
Snippet: All of this activity gives us a sense of what is in store for 2018. Interest in discrete markets and technologies for agtech will continue as farm management adopts a data-driven agronomy, encompassing imagery, sensors and artificial intelligence platforms driving an evolution from precision to “predictive” agriculture.
Tomato grower sees increase in production as a result of AntiReflect
Snippet: Van Adrichem Kwekerijen in Steenbergen achieved a 5% increase in production last year using AntiReflect, compared to an untreated glasshouse section. “We were pleasantly surprised.”
Unilever Grows U.S. Urban Farming Commitment with New Mission-Based Brand
Growing Roots, an organic, plant-based food brand, will donate half of all profits to support Unilever's urban farming partnerships
Press Release: ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., March 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Unilever announced today the expansion of its U.S. urban farming efforts with the launch of Growing Roots, a new organic, plant-based food brand that will support urban farming with every purchase. The brand builds on Unilever's multiyear commitment to urban farming initiatives, which establishes and funds partnerships to unlock access to fresh foods and nutrition education in communities across the country.
"What's so special about Growing Roots is that it started as a social mission that our employees were passionate about, borne from the belief that everyone should have access to affordable, nutritious food," said Matthew McCarthy, Vice President of Foods, Unilever North America. "Seeing the transformational impact urban farms have in communities, we created a brand from the ground up to help fulfill and extend that mission."
In 2015, Unilever joined an innovative, public-private partnership with the city of New York's Building Healthy Communities initiative and Green City Force to create six urban farms in New York, which together have already generated approximately 32,000 pounds of organic produce. In addition to the company providing funds, Unilever employees volunteer thousands of hours each year to these efforts. Based on the program's successful community impact in New York, Unilever has extended outreach to Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Chicago as well. By directing 50 percent of its profits to urban farming initiatives, the Growing Roots brand allows Unilever to build a sustainable model for long-term community impact.
"Green City Force is pleased to be part of a New York City initiative that places young people from public housing communities at the forefront of community engagement and access to fresh produce and vibrant open spaces," said Lisbeth Shepherd, Founder and Executive Director of Green City Force. "We value Unilever's partnership in this work in New York and are grateful for their continued support of urban farming."
Marking Unilever's entry to the U.S. organic snack category, the Growing Roots product line includes snack bites and clusters made from organic ingredients like coconut, corn and seeds. Growing Roots snacks feature simple, plant-based ingredients with delicious, bold flavors in uniquely sweet and savory combinations:
Cocoa Chipotle: The richness of cocoa gets a kick from chipotle peppers for a deeply flavorful snack experience.
Pineapple Coconut Rum: Real pineapple, a splash of rum and a dash of cinnamon come together to bring you a sweet and tangy tropical taste.
Maple Bourbon: Blended with a touch of real maple syrup and a dash of nutmeg for a lightly sweet and warming crunchy snack.
Coconut Curry: A balance of coconut with turmeric and lemongrass to create a savory, spicy flavor.
Growing Roots snack bites and clusters are available in ShopRite stores in the Northeast beginning March 2018, retailing for $3.99 per 4-oz. pack. Unilever will be expanding to nationwide distribution with more retailers throughout 2018, including Amazon Fresh and Amazon.com.
The new line is USDA-certified organic, certified gluten-free, certified vegan and an excellent source of ALA Omega-3 (contains 480-640mg of ALA per 28g serving which is 30-40 percent of the 1.6g Daily Value for ALA).
Growing Roots will make its trade show debut this month at Natural Products Expo West, Booth N134, March 7-11. For more information, visit www.growingrootsfoods.com. Growing Roots is on Instagram and Facebook @growingrootsfoods.
About Unilever United States, Inc.
Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Personal Care, Food & Refreshment and Home Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2.5 billion consumers a day. In the United States, the portfolio includes brand icons such as Axe, Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Caress, Country Crock, Degree, Dollar Shave Club, Dove, Good Humor, Hellmann's, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, Klondike, Knorr, Lever 2000, Lipton, Love Beauty and Planet, Magnum, Nexxus, Noxzema, Pond's, Popsicle, Promise, Pure Leaf, Q-tips, Schmidt's Naturals, Seventh Generation, Simple, Sir Kensington's, St. Ives, Suave, Sundial Brands, Talenti Gelato & Sorbetto, TAZO, TIGI, TONI&GUY, TRESemmé and Vaseline. All of the preceding brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Unilever Group of Companies.
Unilever employs approximately 8,000 people in the United States – generating more than $9 billion in sales in 2017.
Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan underpins the company's strategy and commits to:
Helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being by 2020.
Halving the environmental impact of our products by 2030.
Enhancing the livelihoods of millions of people by 2020.
The USLP creates value by driving growth and trust, eliminating costs and reducing risks. Globally, the company's sustainable living brands are growing 50% faster than the rest of the business and delivered more than 60% of the company's growth in 2016.
For more information on Unilever U.S., its brands visit and the USLP visit: www.unileverusa.com
Fruit trees grow from the roofs of Vietnamese rammed-earth house
Snippet: The house comprises two parallel wings that both feature the sorts of typical pitched roofs required to cope with Vietnam's monsoon rain. Square planters containing fruit trees emerge from the roofs, creating a green space that can be viewed close up from a small terrace on the flat roof of a bridging section connecting the two sides.
Read the full article and see more photos here on DeZeen
