A housing project designed by US architect Nona Yehia promises to provide over 460,000 kg of produce a year, along with housing and jobs. Some vertical farms grow greens in old warehouses, former steel mills, or other sites set apart from the heart of cities. But a new series of projects will build multistory greenhouses directly inside affordable housing developments. Nona Yehia is the CEO of Vertical Harvest, a company that will soon break ground on a new building in Westbrook, Maine, that combines a vertical farm with affordable housing. "Bringing the farm back to the city center can have a lot of benefits," she said.
Similar developments will follow in Chicago and in Philadelphia, where a farm-plus-housing will be built in the Tioga District.
"I think what we've truly understood in the past year and a half, although we've been rooted in it all along, is that we have in this country converging economic, climate, and health crises that are rooted in people's access to healthy food, resilient, nourishing jobs, and fair housing. And we saw this as an urban redevelopment tool that has the potential to address all three," Yehia told Adele Peters in an interview cited by the Tribune Media Services.
"Part of this is providing healthy, nutritious food, but also jobs at livable wages," she added.
Inside each building, the ground level will offer community access, while the greenhouse fills the second, third, and fourth floors, covering 70,000 square feet and growing around 460,000 kg of produce a year. The amount of housing varies by site; in Maine, there will be only 15 units of housing, though the project will create 50 new jobs. In Chicago, there may be a community kitchen on the first level.
In each location, residents will be able to buy fresh produce on-site; Vertical Harvest also plans to let others in the neighborhood buy greens directly from the farm. It will also sell to supermarkets, restaurants, hospitals, and other large customers.
